The Conspiracy
by Zanrok
Summary: Winter is one of Zootopia's most interesting seasons. It's the time of year when many mammals choose their mate, it's a season with love in the air… except that some are too blind to see it. And others are fed up with those oblivious idiots and are determined to do something about it… at any cost.
1. Chapter 1 - Hell's Cupid

.

*Cackles of diabolical laughter*

Mad Grinch Productions Presents:

…

 **The Conspiracy**

…

Created from the mad, mad mind of: Zanrok

Egged on by: Fox in the Hen House

Disclaimer: I plead Insanity

* * *

Chapter 1: Hell's Cupid

Bogo threw down the report he'd just finished reading, accidentally hitting the large stack of other reports on his desk; the tower of paper trembled once, before falling, sending documents scattering all over his desk.

With a groan, he took off his reading glasses and leaned back in his chair massaging his temples. His job was always a little tougher during winter due to it being a common mating season, but this was ridiculous. Two mammals should not be able to make _this_ much trouble for him, mating season or not. Hell, twenty blind love sick mammals shouldn't have been able to make this much trouble for him. It was like those two compensated for their small sizes by doing everything else in a big way. That was fine when taking big chunks of crime off the streets, but that was _Not_ okay when it was making big amounts of trouble for him to deal with.

Bogo didn't like to get involved in such frivolous things. He wasn't a gods damned match maker. But he had a well-deserved reputation for taking care of problems. And this had just become a problem he could no longer ignore. Something _had_ to be done. And if cupid was asleep on the job, then as much as he hated it, he'd just have to take care of it.

When an issue refused to be dealt with by normal means, Bogo had a fairly simple methodology to problem solving. The first approach was simply to hit it head on with a big hammer. But in this situation, he couldn't just give an order and enforce it. That only left the second approach, which was to get devious and hit it from behind with the biggest hammer he could bring to bear on it.

Bogo eyed the sea of reports on his desk.

Yes, it was _past_ time to deal with this problem. He looked up at the calendar on the wall where he'd made a note to remind himself to pick up flowers and chocolates for his wife on a certain fast approaching date. A date that would serve perfectly for his needs.

It was past time that he got devious.

* * *

A/N

Proofread by Gonekrazy3000

...

The Conspiracy Count Down: 168 hours

...


	2. Chapter 2 - Hell's Minion

.

Produced in association with:

The WildeHopps Pirates

...

(Pirate's) Disclaimer:

You're gonna try and sue a Pirate? *Laugh* Oye, Mates! Look here at this fool trying to stop us.

*More laughs & sounds of cutlasses being drawn*

* * *

Chapter 2 – Hell's Minion

Clawhauser watched from the front desk as the day shift started to wind down. More accurately, he watched the ZPD's two smallest mammals.

How any two could possibly be so in love with each other and not see it, he simply didn't know. And while it was utterly adorable and squealingly cute he wished that they would wise up and just get on with it. He was having trouble keeping his glee contained around them anyway and he wanted an invitation to their inevitable wedding. (The only thing that could possibly be more squeal worthy, was if it was Gazelle being in love) This waiting for them to finally realize that the other was secretly in love with them was going to give him a hernia from trying to hold in his excitement if it went on much longer, or so he concluded as he thought back over all that had happened since those two had met.

Judy and Nick had been working together now for nearly a year as partners, ever since Nick had graduated from the Academy last spring actually. There had been a number of quietly voiced concerns over Bogo's decision to not only back the fox's application to the academy but then later to allow the two smallest and newest officers of Precinct 1 to work together as partners. When asked about it, Bogo had snorted and dismissed the concerns, which had caused no end of muttering on what the hell the chief was thinking. Some had worried that the chief had broken under the stress of his job; Most were willing to give the two officers a chance, they'd deserved that much after the fiasco last year with former Mayors Lionheart and Bellwether but they were still green cops.

Hopps had certainly earned a reputation with the other officers she'd been partnered with while Nick had been at the academy, as a devoted and hardworking officer but while she was good, none of her partners had thought she was _that_ good. Sure, she had potential but she was still a relatively new officer and so much smaller than any of them.

Bogo though, apparently thought differently, or possibly knew something no one else did. He had a reputation for not only his legendary scowl but his uncannily accurate hunches and intuition; which was part of the reason so many were shocked to see the near reversal of his thoughts regarding the Mammal Inclusion Initiative and allowing small mammals on the force.

When the concerns over the newest team had been brought up the second time, Bogo had decreed with his full scowl that the next officer to mention any concerns before the end of the month had better have an actual, substantial issue with their performance, not just concerns or that they'd be stuck on parking duty for the rest of the month too. That had shut up all the direct talk about the new partners but like any group of mammals, it couldn't stop the gossiping.

However, far before the end of the month, (actually, after little more than a week of the pair working together), the quiet discussions and gossip regarding Hopps and Wilde had shifted. It hadn't stopped but instead of muttering about the advisability of pairing them together, there was constant talk about how the two new officers who'd primarily been assigned to standard cruiser patrols had busted a street racing ring, 3 robberies, a smuggling operation and had apparently stumbled upon a lead that led to the precinct's largest drug bust since the Nighthowler Conspiracy. The bunny and fox duo not only seemed to be magnets for trouble but had shown a remarkable ability to handle nearly any situation they found themselves in, (Though the precinct had had to do a snap mobilization of the SWAT unit to rescue the two when a parking violation they were ticketing led them to discover the smuggling operation and they'd found themselves pinned down in what the SWAT unit commander had called 'A shoot out worthy of Billygoat the Kid and the Wild West" in the report afterwards)

By the time Bogo's decreed month of 'Annoy me at your own peril' ended, not a single officer was questioning his decision and the office gossip mill had turned to swapping stories of the two officer's adventures.

By the next month, the bunny and fox were still the center of the precinct's gossip but the rumors and mutterings had shifted to debate over just _how_ well those two worked together. It was remarked upon that the few times they had to work with other partners, that while their performance was still above average, they simply didn't seem to be able to replicate that stellar performance with other partners. In addition, they seemed to spend nearly every available moment they could together, both in and out of work. Not even the occasional small arguments they had, came close to breaking apart their team, in fact, each one seemed to only result in the two working _better_ together afterwards.

Clawhauser smirked, remembering how it wasn't a surprise to anyone when he, as the unofficial head of the station's gossip mill, had added a WildeHopps betting pool. Bogo had actually seemed amused at that, but that was probably because it was the policy that any office betting pools gave a percentage to the Police and Firefighters fund, along with the whole pool going to it if it went bust at the end of each month.

To say that every officer had bet on when the bunny and fox would finally wise up to what was apparent to everyone else and finally start dating would be inaccurate, because by the grace of the gods, the precincts two smallest officers hadn't found out about it. But nearly 7 months later (with the house taking the entire pot at the end of every month) and there hadn't been a winner. Most of the officers, with the notable exception of Bogo were ready to scream with frustration.

That frustration as fall turned to winter and the season progressed, was also starting to take on a more serious tone from those in the chain of command for those two officers. It was common knowledge that winter was mating season for many mammals, particularly canids, and that they, especially those without mates, tended to be more irritable and distracted during that time. (Wolford had become the stations inside joke about mating season irritability since he was currently the longest running bachelor on the force; though the betting pool on whether he would finally start looking for a mate this year wasn't nearly as popular as the WildeHopps pool) But whereas Wolford seemed to have mastered the knack for dealing with winter mating season and not letting it affect his work too much, Wilde hadn't. The fox's irritability and distraction had grown to the point where it was degrading his work, and in addition, degrading Hopps's performance as she became increasingly worried and distracted by her moody partner. Their performance was still adequate, they got the job done, but it was nowhere near their usual level. That and the one attempt to see if they would work better with different partners during the mating season had been a disaster of epic proportions.

Wilde, well… Wilde had been assigned to an undercover sting operation, something he and Hopps had done a few times now and been highly successful at. But during the weapons deal the operation had gone pear shaped when one of the criminals had made a particularly rude comment regarding a trace scent on him that had started a fight. They'd still gotten the evidence they needed and even nabbed all the criminals involved before they could escape, but by the time Wilde's backup had arrived, half of the abandoned warehouse had been brought down and was on fire. (though escape was putting it lightly. The criminals had described their actions as 'fleeing the insane red demon that had commandeered their explosives' while giving confessions in a deal they'd pleaded for so long as it included a promise that they be locked away someplace far, far away from Wilde). Hopps on the other hand, had _only_ nearly given Francie a heart attack in what was going down as Zootopia's most harrowing highway chase. (Apparently, the robbers had been so terrified of the brooding bunny officer that they'd thought taking insane risks in attempts to escape her was safer than surrendering.)

To say that they had been put back together after that despite their mediocre and lackluster performance together was accurate. (It was rumored that the officers who'd been scheduled to work with them the next day had gone and pleaded with Bogo to cancel the temporary change of partners and just let them stay together.)

Clawhauser watched as even as Nick and Judy talked with Wolford, someone they both liked and got along with, Nick, despite his obvious attempts to stay pleasant was nearly bristling. He'd positioned himself so that he was ever so subtly both next to Judy but also slightly between her and the other male while obviously trying hard not to snarl or growl. At one point, it looked like he might have actually started to but Judy reached over and poked him getting his attention and saying something to him with a stern expression. Nick's shoulders dropped a bit and he nodded before looking at Wolford and giving what Clawhauser assumed was an apology. While he was doing that Clawhauser watched as Judy snuck concerned glances at him that also betrayed an unmistakable worry and longing. She even started to reach out to take his paw before quickly stopping.

Clawhauser could even see from where he sat how she was twisting her paws behind her back and that every time she glanced at Nick her ears started to rise before she quickly dropped them back down along her back.

Judy edged a bit closer to him and Nick's tail started to curl around the back of her legs before he realized it and snapped the appendage away from her.

A twenty dollar bill appeared in front of Clawhauser and Grizzole muttered, "Day after Valentine's day. They might be too dense to figure it out but after seeing all the other couples that day, they'll jump each other out of sheer desperation."

Clawhauser nodded putting the money away and making a mark on the betting chart. "They'll make the cutest couple, don't you think?" Clawhauser said in a near sigh.

"I don't care what they're like afterwards, this..." he gestured at them, "This is just moronic. Someone should do the city a favor and lock them in a room and not let them out until they come to their senses and rut each other silly like they obviously want to. That and I want that prize money."

"Oh, oh, wait a second!" Clawhauser said excitedly, holding a paw up, "Watch this, this is always adorable."

Their conversation finished, Judy turned to head to the front doors but had to turn back when Nick continued to stare after the wolf as if making sure he was leaving and not following after Judy. She reached over and grabbed Nick's tie, pulling on it to get him to start following, which he did easily enough, though he seemed to have a hard time trying not to stare at her tail. He'd try to look away before inevitably finding himself staring at it with a look of want strong enough to break through his famous mask of indifference.

Grizzole shook his head. "Wolford said that he'd admitted to him that he's in love with her but that he won't try anything because he thinks that she doesn't like him in 'that way' and is sure it would ruin their friendship."

Clawhauser giggled still watching them leave through the main doors and said, "Love can make idiots out of anyone. But at least their cute adorable idiots."

"But how can she _not_ see the signs?! He's barely holding himself back from challenging anyone who so much as looks at her admiringly."

"Country bunny," Clawhauser replied with a sigh as they left his view, "This is her first winter around predators. She knows that the single ones can get irritable but that's about it. She doesn't know why or what any of the signs mean."

"and no-ones tried explaining it to her?" Grizzole asked astonished.

"Rhinowitz tried," Clawhauser said feeling a little gloomy remembering the attempt, "She started explaining some of it, but the little bit she managed to tell Judy apparently made her realize that Nick's odd behavior is because he has feelings for someone; problem is our blind little bunny thinks that it's for another fox. She told Sasha to stop explaining, that she didn't want to know more, that it wasn't her business to mess around with his love life and then ran off. Francine apparently heard her crying in the bathroom afterwards."

"Gods, that is unbelievable." The bear muttered, before pulling out his wallet and placing another twenty in Clawhauser's paw. "Double my bet, Valentine's day will be the breaking point. Either they'll get together afterwards or it will kill them."

Clawhauser grinned and put the money with the rest and marked down the bet, but before he could reply the desk phone rang.

He hit the speaker button only to hear Bogo's unhappy voice come over the line saying, "Clawhauser, get your tail up here immediately!"

Clawhauser barely got out a 'Right away Chief', before Bogo ended the call.

"That didn't sound good," Grizzole said looking at the now concerned cheetah, "I thought Fangmeyer was helping you get in shape so you don't fail the physical fitness exam again."

Clawhauser looked glumly at the empty box of donuts like it was all their fault before nodding his head and getting up to go see Bogo.

* * *

A/N

Pirates as they loot Dinsey's lawyers office looking for the rights to Zootopia:

"WildeHopps! WildeHopps! WildeHopps! WildeHopps!"

...

The Conspiracy Count Down: 72 hours


	3. Chapter 3 - A Seed of Conspiracy

.

Assistance and Support Thanks to:

The WildeHopps Navy

...

(Navy's) Disclaimer:

Wait, you object? Hold on one second. 'Chief Petty Officer, we need more personnel, right?'

'Good, press gang them.'

* * *

Chapter 3 - A Seed of Conspiracy

"Come in," Chief Bogo said at the knock on his door.

"Chief? You wanted to see me?" asked a nervous Clawhauser.

"Yes, take a seat Clawhauser," Bogo gestured to the chair in front of his desk, which Clawhauser sat in before fidgeting worriedly.

Bogo took off his reading glasses and eyed the tubby cheetah for a moment, waiting. He couldn't simply tell Clawhauser what he wanted done, that would ruin his reputation. He needed to do this right, let him worry a bit, then prod and nudge him along until he suggested the end result Bogo wanted.

Clawhauser's nervousness grew until he finally burst out, "Chief, is this is about my yearly physical fitness test? I've been sticking to the prescribed workout schedule. I even lost a few pounds this last month."

 _Perfect, two birds with one stone._

Bogo held his gaze for another moment before giving him a slight nod, "You're a good officer Clawhauser, I'd hate to lose you if you can't pass your make up exam, how are your practice scores?"

Clawhauser relaxed just a bit, "Fangmeyer said that I made the minimum requirements last weekend."

"I want to see you do better than the bare minimum Clawhauser. This department can't afford to lose you." Bogo said, using his stare to impress his seriousness. Clawhauser squirmed but nodded back with a, "Yes, Chief. You can count on me, I'll do better than the bare minimum."

 _That's one issue I don't have to worry about, now to the real problem._

Bogo let up on his 'Don't disappoint me.' look and leaned back in his chair, lowering the tension in the room slightly.

"Good, now that wasn't the only reason I called you up here Clawhauser," Bogo continued, "Since you work the front desk, you get a good impression of how everyone in the department is doing. I'd like to get you opinion on how things are going, especially because this year's winter mating season seems to be a little more… rowdy than normal." Bogo looked back at Clawhauser and as ominously as he could without sounding fake continued, "I'd like to hear what you think before I'm forced to take any necessary administrative actions to resolve department… problems." He finished, ratcheting the tension in the room right back up.

The cheetah's relaxing face did a 180 and became twice as worried as it was before, which didn't surprise Bogo in the least. Clawhauser probably had the biggest heart out of all the officers in Precinct 1. It only took a hint from Bogo that something might happen to one of them to make him more worried about that than he would ever be about himself.

"Umm, well… sir. Ah… Anderson found a mate last year so he's taking winter far better this year; if anything people almost wish he was still grumpy and would stop gushing about their upcoming wedding. Wolford seems a bit more haggard than he usually is this year but he's handling it well, hasn't had any outbursts, he's keeping it locked down, doing that whole alpha control thing. And…" Clawhauser paused becoming visibly more worried, his thumbs now fiddling together as he seemed to try and think of anything he could do to avoid the inevitable final subject.

Bogo prompted him, asking, "And?"

Clawhauser glanced at Bogo almost pleadingly, "Well, sir… Everybody knows that Nick isn't handling it well, but he's trying. And Judy's also a bit… distracted and worried over his… situation, but they're both getting the job done and nobody's been complaining about it. It's just an itsy-bitsy tiny issue." He said holding his paw up, fingers barely apart.

Bogo dropped a file on his desk, "Francine had to see a therapist after Hopps's car chase,"

Clawhauser flinched but replied defensively, "Sir, Francine said she's always had a bit of an issue with car chases, and it didn't help that the robbers had a team of mice working with them. She said that… event, just made her realize that she needed to face those fears instead of ignoring them."

Bogo dropped another file on the desk, "Firefighter report on the warehouse Wilde destroyed."

Another flinch, "That warehouse was already scheduled to be demolished, he just did it a little early."

Bogo lifted another file, putting his reading glasses back on, "This is from their interrogation of Mr. Huffins, the house burglar yesterday after they swapped out and let Delgato try," he said before reading from it,

Delgato: 'You ready to talk yet?'

Huffins (suspect): 'Why the **** would I ever **** talk to the **** fuzz?'

Delgato: 'Because I can simply let Wilde and Hopps back in here to continue questioning you.'

Huffins (suspect): '**** **** for the love of ****. That's got to be against some **** law. Cruel and unusual **** punishment! You can't **** do that!'

Delgato: 'I don't see why not, they were mostly arguing with each other and they didn't do anything to you.'

Huffins (suspect): '****, those ******* idiots need to get a **** ******* room and just **** each other. Making me watch them is **** torture!'

Delgato: 'Not in the eyes of the law, we checked. So, you gonna talk or do I bring them back in?'

Huffins (suspect): '****, **** ****** *** **** and ****! **** fuzz, **** *** *****!

Delgato: 'Okay, if you want to deal with the rabbit and the fox that's fine by me,'

Huffins (suspect): '****, wait a **** second! I'll ******* talk!'

Bogo dropped the file onto the stack.

Clawhauser was chewing on his lip, "ah Chief, it might be a bit… unconventional… but the guys checked the laws carefully before using Hopps and Wilde's… situation, to help with interrogations. It's perfectly legal and it's been working surprisingly well."

A fourth file hit the stack. And Bogo said, "A comment regarding their visit to the Savanah Acorn Heights school for a presentation with the new Anti-drug education initiative, stating that while the presentation was a success, that their 'current courtship situation' left the student body rife with gossip and rumors to the point that it was distracting students from their studies, and asked that until they resolve their 'situation' that we send different officers in the future."

"Highschoolers are going to be highschoolers?" Clawhauser tried, though his defense of Hopps and Wilde was weakening.

Another file, this one looking like a letter, "A comment from the citizenry thanking us for our work but suggesting something should be done about the officers 'cute romantic issue'."

"If it's only one comment…" Clawhauser started, but Bogo brought out an entire stack of similar papers and dropped them on the pile.

"Um…" Clawhauser said, seeming to scramble to find some way to defend them, "None of them are _bad_ comments, are they?"

"No, but it's become a noted concern of the public. In fact," Bogo pulled out another paper and placed it delicately on top of the heap like the crowning cherry on a desert, "The new mayor sent this asking what the hell is up with the ZPD's two most publicly recognizable officers. Their tinsy 'issue' is fast becoming one of public concern and gossip. They mayor is worried that because of their role as not only the first small mammals on the force but the most prominent and well known predator and prey police team, that if their little relationship falls apart and results in a public fight between them, that it could cause massive harm to healing predator-prey relations in the city."

"Um…" Clawhauser was a bit wide eyed and now very worried as he seemed to be grasping the full scope of the problem.

 _Now, just need to add a little focus to that worry,_ Bogo thought, watching Clawhauser's reaction to make sure that his little show had the desired effect.

"If their situation can't resolve itself, I'm afraid I might be forced to suspend both of them," Bogo said looking absolutely serious but with just a touch of sympathy.

"Suspend?!" Clawhauser choked out, "Sir! That would just about kill Judy, and Nick would go _nutz_ if she became depressed like that!"

 _And now to direct all that worry and concern._

Bogo shrugged, "I don't seem to have much of a choice," he said regretfully, pulling out a disciplinary action form and starting to fill it out, making sure Clawhauser could see that he'd marked the 'suspension' category. "There's not much else I can do, Clawhauser. If they just got together that would solve all of these issues but it's not like I can force them to be reasonable."

Clawhauser froze, before nearly shouting, "Sir, Wait!"

Bogo stopped writing and looked up, raising an eyebrow in question.

The cheetah visibly tried to calm himself down, before continuing, "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to shout." He looked at Bogo hopefully, "If they were to get together, you wouldn't need to suspend them right?"

Bogo nodded in answer, "Doing so would probably solve Wilde's and by extension Hopps current problems, so there wouldn't be any need to suspend then. But from how utterly oblivious they are, that's not going to happen, and I can't order them to." He sighed dramatically picking up his pen as if to finish filling out the form, "It's too bad, they make a good team… I didn't want to lose them."

"But sir," Clawhauser said and then lowered his voice to an almost whisper, "You might not be able to order them to get together, but… but…" he paused a bit looking at Bogo nervously before continuing, "but, that doesn't mean we couldn't give them a little push."

Bogo just continued to look at Clawhauser, his expression not shifting, simply remaining completely neutral.

 _Almost Clawhauser. You're almost there._ He thought, willing the cheetah to continue.

Clawhauser spoke in a sudden flood, trying to keep his voice low, though there was a nervous excitement to it, "Sir, that's all they need, just a _tiny_ push to get things rolling. Judy thinks Nick is in love with some vixen, not her and Nick's too terrified to make a move because he doesn't think she's interested in him that way and is too worried he'll lose her as a friend. They just need a bit of a nudge to get them past that, then..." he gestured at the small mountain of paper on Bogo's desk, "all those problems will be taken care of."

He stopped to breath before continuing in a conspiratorial voice, "I know all their friends. All of them who have tried to talk to them directly have just made the situation worse because they don't listen, but… well sir, all of them want to help, they just don't know how. I could talk to them, I'm sure that all of us could put something together. Instead of trying to reason with them we can… we can… just sort of nudge them, put them in a situation where they can't ignore how the other feels about them. Valentine's day is coming up. If you can just give them a little bit more time, just until then, we can give them that nudge they need. That'll solve their relationship problem and then you won't have to suspend them. You'll get their team back to what it was and won't have to suspend them. Everybody wins."

 _Perfect. Thank you Clawhauser._ Bogo thought pleased with himself, though he made sure not to show it.

He leaned back in his chair slowly, tapping his chin as if thinking it over. He scowled just for good measure, before stopping his tapping and looking right at the cheetah.

"You think that you can actually get them to stop being blind fools?"

The cheetah nodded his head enthusiastically.

Bogo paused again as if mulling the idea over before speaking in a stern voice, "Fine, Officer Clawhauser. I'll give you until the day after Valentine's day to have the issue taken care of, otherwise I'll be forced to suspend them." he pulled out a few more forms and filled them out. "I'm putting you in charge of this little operation you suggested, though I'll be supervising it. Don't go blabbing about it to anyone. If anyone asks what you are up to, you've been assigned to a confidential operations team. Don't tell anyone else, anything else, unless they've been brought in on the operation. Get me a list of the names of everyone else you want to bring in and a preliminary plan before you leave today. Understood?"

Clawhauser looked at him with so much excitement that Bogo could almost see it bubbling over, "Yes, sir! You can count on me!"

Bogo put the forms in a file, pulled out a stamp and slammed it down leaving a large red 'CLASSIFIED' on the front of the folder. He handed the file to the cheetah.

"That's everything you need to start. Now, get going Clawhauser, I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible." Bogo said.

Clawhauser saluted, and then bounced his way toward the door.

"Clawhauser," Bogo called out, and the cheetah stopped with his paw on the door handle, looking back.

"Take this seriously and try not to look so excited or you'll give the operation away."

Clawhauser nodded, before working on his expression and heading out.

Bogo gave a snort after the door closed. The tubby officer had managed to change his expression from looking like he'd won a years' worth of free donuts to looking like he was about to go off to war.

 _Well, not quite keeping a low profile, but no one will suspect what he's up to with him looking like that._

* * *

A/N

...

Welcome to the WildeHopps Navy. The correct response is 'Aye, Aye!'

...

The Conspiracy Count Down: 48 hours

...


	4. Chapter 4-First Moves & Unpredictability

.

Produced in Partnership with Zootopia's Newest Rising Team:

Who you ask?

Now wouldn't you like to know!

...

Disclaimer: This one isn't my fault! Really it isn't!

* * *

Chapter - 4 - First Moves and Unexpected Consequences

Judy stared at the letter in her paw, her gut seeming to twist in turmoil. She read it for the hundredth time since opening it up that morning, though she'd already memorized it, and still wasn't sure what to do about it.

Congratulations!

You've won Marriage and Mates Magazine's yearly Valentine's Day lottery!

Included is an all-inclusive package for you and your one special other!

Tickets to Zootopia's Valentine's Day Festival including VIP passes to Gazelle's Valentine's Day Concert

and Dinner at the famous Palm Tree Tower's Skyline Restaurant in Sahara Square.

Marriage and Mates Magazine thanks you for your continued patronage

and hopes you and your special other enjoy the best Valentine's Day…

The letter went on like that to outline everything and had contained the tickets for 'Judy Hopps plus 1' to all the events.

Judy didn't know whether to thank or curse Fru Fru for signing her up for the magazine's subscription. It was fun to talk about it with her friend on their girls nights out, but recently every time she'd seen the magazine in her mail box it had only depressed her. Now, it was only a reminder to her that the mammal she's finally admitted to herself that she'd fallen in love with, would never be hers.

This just made that painful feeling worse. She'd love to go to Gazelle's concert, but the thought of going alone…

She thought back to the concert she and Nick had gone to right after he'd graduated from the Academy. It was only when her mother had started asking some very pointed questions after having watched her and Nick that she finally started to admit to herself that she might be falling in love with him.

But she'd been too shy to do anything about it. She'd never felt this way about anyone else before and now she'd waited too long and lost her chance. Winter had come along and Nick had apparently found someone else. Judy had to fight back a sob as she stole a glance across the precinct's work room to where Nick was going through a file-cabinet, and cursed this stupid season for the millionth time. He was her partner, but now he'd never be hers. She'd thought at first that his change in behavior, his shorter temper with other males and the haggard worn experience was just the normal winter mating season affecting him; Her highschool sex-ed class had taught her the basics about the common winter mating season and how it affected many mammals, though this was the first time she'd really been around someone going through it. And from what Sasha had told her, this was worse than normal because he'd fallen in love with someone.

The corner of the paper crumpled in her clenching paw as she thought enviously of whatever lucky vixen had caught his eye. She had to remind herself that she was his friend, that as a good friend she was supposed to be happy that he had found someone special, that she couldn't go find that vixen he was courting and strangle her.

And then there was this stupid lottery she'd won all because of Fru Fru's stupid magazine. As much as she wanted to just go see the Gazelle Concert, she didn't think she could. She'd spend the entire time there wishing that Nick was with her, that he was-

Her thought was interrupted by a high pitched excited squeal as a spotted paw snatched the paper out of her grip.

"O M Goodness! Judy you got _VIP_ tickets to GAZELLE's Concert!" Clawhauser said excitedly reading through the letter before Judy managed to snatch it back and stuff it back in her pocket.

"Clawhauser!" Judy said embarrassedly, but the enthusiastic cheetah couldn't be contained.

" *Squeeal*, Judy who are you going with? That sounds like so much fun! That's going to be the best Valentine's day _ever_! Come on, spill, I want to hear all about who you're taking and your plans for the night. Does that pass include a backstage visit with the angel with horns?! Are you-" Clawhauser was just gaining steam, so Judy quickly cut him off.

"I'm not going, Benjamin." She said glumly, "I'd give the tickets to you but they're no good if I'm not there."

Clawhauser's tongue seemed to trip over itself before he got out a surprised, "What?! Why not? You have to go. It's Gazelle, you can't just _not_ go!"

Judy looked down at her paws, she could feel her ears dropping like they were loaded down by lead weights.

"I'm not going because I don't have anyone to go with, Benji. And I'm not going to go alone."

Clawhauser let out an exasperated, "What do you mean you don't have anyone to go with? _Anyone_ would want to go with you to see Gazelle."

"It's a _Valentine's_ day concert," Judy stressed, "I don't have any 'special someone' to go with and I don't want to go alone," Judy said glumly turning back to her work, hoping he'd take the hint and drop the subject.

"Well, we can't have that!" Clawhauser said in an indignantly loud voice, "You, Judy Hopps, _are_ going to go see Gazelle or I'll have to arrest you for slandering her reputation. Nobody refuses to go to a Gazelle concert, it's simply not right!" he looked back down at her, his big smile coming back, "You don't want to go because you don't have a boyfriend? Well then, how about if I go as your 'boyfriend' for the night?"

Judy stopped, thinking about that. She still didn't want to go, but she knew how much Clawhauser adored Gazelle. It might not be a completely miserable night with a friend like Clawhauser, and he'd at least enjoy it.

"You have to go Judy! You have to, I'll even do the entire fake boyfriend thing for the night if it'll make you want to go," Clawhauser said dropping to his knees pleadingly while taking up her paw.

Judy was about to agree just to get him to stop when Nick arrived back at their desk looking even moodier than he had been all morning.

"Clawhauser, what are you doing now?" he nearly growled as he looked pointedly at the cheetah's paws holding hers.

"I'm trying to convince our silly bunny here, that she can't skip out on a Gazelle concert. She won't go because she thinks she doesn't have any friends that want to go with her."

There was a moment in which Judy blinked and thought that a look of hurt might have flashed across Nick's face, but no, that must have been her imagination. Nick's fur did seem to bristle somewhat as he gave Clawhauser another moody scowl while the cheetah released her paw and got back up. Nick gave a terse reply after the cheetah had let go, "Judy has lots of friends, I'd certainly go with her to a concert if she wanted, even an overly popular fad music one like _Gazelle._ "

Clawhauser gave a strangled gasp, and squeaked, " _Blasphemy!_ You take that back!", right as Judy said in almost as startled of a voice, "You would?"

Nick ignored the Cheetah having a conniption over the idea of Gazelle being an 'overly popular fad'. And looked at Judy, his fur settling a little, "Of course Carrots. I'm your friend and partner," her heart jumped like it always did when he called her his partner nowadays, even though she knew he didn't mean it in the way she wished he did, "If you want someone to go with to a silly concert or anything else, I'll always go with you."

There was a squeal as Clawhauser hit the floor seeming to have a heart attack at the description 'silly'.

Judy crossed her arms looking back at Nick who was now smirking while looking at the cheetah in apparent pain, "She's a great singer, unlike you and your so-called 'dancing'!" Nick stiffened indignantly letting out a "Hey! Those were _classic_ dance moves!"

Judy smirked back at him, "Well regardless, you seemed to enjoy yourself a lot at that last 'silly' concert."

Nick sniffed and grabbed his coffee mug from their desk, "That's because I enjoy being around my best friend not because of the concert." Judy's heart seemed to split in two, half jumping and half dropping. It made her warm inside to know that he considered her his best friend but she wanted so badly to be more than just his friend.

Clawhauser got back to his feet and gave Nick a disdainful glare before turning to Judy and pointing at her. In his most serious voice he ordered, "Officer Judy Hopps, As a righteous moral supporter of the angel with horns you are required to take this… this…" he glared at Nick again, "this uncultured barbarian to that concert. I want pictures of him enjoying himself so that he can never say anything like that again!" With a final indignant sniff, the cheetah turned around and with surprising speed for his size, left the room. Nick's huff was drowned out by a number of laughs and chuckles from the other officers who had stopped working at their desks to watch the spectacle.

McHorn called across the room with a snorting chuckle, "Better go stop him Hopps, before he tries to get Bogo to assign a police escort to make sure that you drag your partner to that concert!" and the room erupted in more laughs and thumping sounds as some of the larger officers pounded on their desk in amusement.

Judy grabbed Nick's paw and dragged him to where the cheetah had departed, muttering the whole time.

Unfortunately for her though, Clawhauser hadn't headed back to the front desk like she thought he would,

"Oh, no he didn't!" Judy snapped and dragged Nick along as she rushed off toward Bogo's office.

She came to a skidding halt in front of the Chief's open door so suddenly that Nick stumbled into her and they fell into a heap on the floor.

Nick quickly jumped up and off of her like he'd been burned, before helping her up. Judy had only a moment to feel a pang of hurt at the sudden jerk away from her before the Chief's gaze froze her.

"Hopps, Wilde." He said, not sounding pleased. Though that might be putting it too kindly.

Judy saw Clawhauser in the room and quickly tried to explain, "Um, sir… Clawhauser just thought that-"

The Chief silenced her with a wave of his hoof. "Hopps, I don't like this kind of horsing around in the office. If you and your partner wanted the day off tomorrow, you two should have simply filled out the forms and submitted them, not asked Clawhauser to come pleading on your behalf while you two go running around the office like this was some playground." He gave them a stern look before picking up a report from the pile on his desk and pointedly glancing at it, "In fact both, you and Wilde seem to have been performing especially poorly lately. I don't know what's gotten into you two, and I don't care." He pulled out a form from his desk starting to fill it out, "It has also been pointed out that neither of you two have taken any time off since starting." He finished filling out the form and stamped it before holding it out to them, and Judy hesitantly walked forward to take it, "Therefore, you two _will_ take the next two days off. I don't care what you do but get yourselves straightened out. I expect you two to be back with your usual level of teamwork afterwards," He gave both her and Nick one of his famous scowls making her shudder, "understood?"

"Yes, s-sir." Judy managed to get out and Bogo's glare shifted entirely to Nick who gave a quick, "Yes, Chief!"

"Good, now go finish up your report on your morning patrol and then leave for the day. I don't want to catch so much as a glimpse of you two around the precinct for the next two days." The Chief snapped with a dismissing wave and looked back at Clawhauser sternly, "Clawhauser, get back to your job. You have a briefing for the operations team in an hour."

Bogo went back to writing for a moment before looking back up.

"What are you all waiting for? Get going!" he said with a scowl.

They all unfroze and rushed out.

…

Back at the safety of the front desk, Judy gave her best 'Bogo' glare at Clawhauser.

"Benjamin! You shouldn't have annoyed the Chief like that! Look at what happened!" she said waving the approved leave form in front of him angrily.

The Cheetah though, instead of looking apologetic looked rather pleased with himself. He smiled just a bit too smugly down at her, "I think that worked out perfectly, now you don't have any excuse not to take Nick and show him the wonders of Gazelle."

"Benji! That won't work, Nick's going to be _busy_ tomorrow, he can't go!" She said almost shaking with the mix of emotions she was feeling. She was having a hard time containing her anger, unhappiness, and jealously while thinking about who Nick would be with tomorrow and what he would be doing while she was all alone.

A finger flicked one of her ears that was standing on end nearly vibrating as much as her paw was shaking.

"I'm now off duty just like you Carrots, I don't know why you think that I'm going to be busy," he said tersely, sounding like he was trying to hold back his own emotions.

Judy turned to him and gaped, "But tomorrow's Valentine's day, of course you're going to be busy."

Nicks face locked up, his expression becoming a cold unreadable mask, and he replied in a stony voice with hints of unhappiness, "No. I'm not going to be busy."

Judy just stared at him. Had something happened between him and his girlfriend? Did they have a fight? She started to say something, to ask, but stopped. He obviously didn't want to talk about it and she could see the tiniest bit of pain leaking through that mask of his.

"Do you want to come with me tomorrow then?" she asked before she realized that she'd spoken, and was immediately horrified at what she'd said. Was she the kind of mammal to try and steal away someone as soon as their relationship hit a bump? That wasn't what a good friend would do, how could-

"Sure Carrots," Nick said interrupting her thoughts. He forced a smile through his mask, "Going to a silly concert with you sounds like fun. I'd lo…" he sighed and looked down, "I'd really enjoy going with you to do something besides work tomorrow."

Judy looked at him; her heart wanting to break. She couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of hate for the vixen that was hurting her fox's heart like this. But if Nick needed a friend, she'd always be there for him. It might make her own heart ache to have to go with him only as a friend but for him... she'd do anything.

"I'd… I'd like that too," she said and his smile seemed to grow ever so slightly, "It'll be nice to go with my best friend, I guess I could use a bit of fun too." She couldn't help but give him a quick hug, saying, "Thanks, Nick. I know I can always count on you to be my friend." Before turning and heading back toward their desk at a brisk pace so that he couldn't see her face.

* * *

Clawhauser watched as Judy hurried off, leaving Nick behind, his smile seeming to crack like a breaking sheet of ice. The fox looked back at the ground before mumbling, "I'll always be your friend if that's what you want me to be," before shuffling after her, looking like he'd been sucker punched. Three steps later though and he'd reasserted his mask and any hints of pain had disappeared.

Clawhauser watched Nick leave through the door, before shaking his head and picking up the phone and dialing a number.

"Chief… yes they're going… Yes, sir. It's dangerous but it's the best option we have, they've already decided to take the bait… Yes sir, we've got to be careful with them, we can't have anyone on the operation be seen tailing them. Any of them would be recognized and could ruin everything… Right, this is already risky enough for them… I'll be in the meeting room on time."

He hung up the phone and went back to reviewing his files with a determined face.

Clawhauser though, with his attention on Nick hadn't realized someone else had stopped to watch the bunny and rabbit. He'd missed the fact that they stopped when they overheard the start of his phone call and he certainly didn't see how their eyes had gone wide as they listened.

* * *

Fangmeyer hurried back through the building thinking hard. There had been a slew of rumors lately about something big going on. Everybody knew that Clawhauser had been brought in on some sort of top level and classified group. Some thought that it was an operation concerning corruption in the government or something to do with a leak in the ZPD or one of a thousand other rumors. The cheetah, usually the one everyone went to get their gossip had suddenly dried up and wasn't saying a word. There probably wasn't a more widely trusted officer, besides Bogo, than Clawhauser though. That along with the fact that the usually cheery and talkative cat, had been seen looking far more serious than anyone had ever remembered him being and wasn't saying a word about what was going on had everyone convinced that whatever it was, it was big.

And from what she'd heard, apparently dangerous, very dangerous. The brass seemed to be sending Hopps and Wilde out on some undercover mission with no backup, and that worried Fangmeyer. She'd come to really like Judy and even that snarky fox partner of hers. They were good, but every officer should have backup just in case.

She thought over everything she knew, from what she'd heard earlier in the workroom, that now seemed like a well-planned charade to convince everyone that nothing out of the ordinary was going on, to every bit of information she knew about crimes around the city.

Something was niggling at the back of her mind.

It was widely known that Judy was friends with Fru Fru Big, daughter of Mr. Big. There was wide speculation among the precinct that their friendship might be influencing the notorious crime boss. Many thought that was the reason why Mr. Big had been scaling back his more… questionable businesses. Sources had passed along information though that there had been some discontented grumblings in Mr. Bigs ranks about that.

Her mind was telling her that there was some connection there but she couldn't put her finger on it. That and all her police instincts were screaming at her that they shouldn't be allowed to go on such a dangerous mission without another team to have their back.

If that secret operations group couldn't give them any back up directly then maybe it might be for the best if another team, one completely out of the loop from the operation just happened to be there with them. If something went wrong, that other team would have just been in the right place at the right time to offer help…

Fangmeyer was so distracted with her thoughts that she ran right into her partner. Wolford had his head lowered reading something on his phone as he walked and smacked muzzle first right into the cleavage of her chest.

"What!?" He spluttered before quickly taking a step back and looking at her then at her chest before blushing slightly, "Nadine! Sorry, I ah… wasn't watching where I was going. Sorry, didn't mean to walk into your… um, sorry."

She looked back at him more amused than anything at his blushing and stammering; Here was Wolford, Mr. Alpha always in control, (at least when he wasn't pulling some sort of prank almost worthy of Wilde) blushing like a high schooler because he'd walked into her chest.

He glanced back at her chest again, before blushing a bit more.

"Males," She muttered rolling her eyes with an amused huff. He might not be interested in dating, she'd actually tried once a few years ago to subtly get him to ask her out, just out of curiosity, but he seemed determined to go on lone wolfing, though he sure didn't have an issue with appreciating certain aspects of females.

She pushed aside her amused thoughts, she needed to talk to him about everything she'd heard and what she'd been thinking, so she grabbed him and hurried down the hall, opening a door to a viewing room for one of the empty interrogation rooms before leading her confused partner in and shutting the door, making sure to turn the lock.

"Nadine, what the hell is up?" Wolford nearly yelped, now looking at her with an expression of confusion, alarm and a hint of something else. He glanced at her chest again, where he'd run into her, "Um… Nadine? I, uh…" he looked around the empty room, at the locked door, at her chest, then at her eyes, before hurriedly looking away, "Um, Nadine, I like you, I really do, but isn't this a little, um… fast? I mean…"

Fangmeyer's entire thought process wrecked like a derailed train.

 _Wait, Wait, WAIT. Back up. Did he just suggest what I think he suggested?_

She looked around at the room she'd dragged him into, the empty room, alone, just the two of them. With the door locked.

 _Oh no, Oh Gods, He thinks that I want to…_

Her face seemed to spontaneously combust and she face palmed, "Sorry, Sorry. This is not what it looks like Ralph! I just overheard something and needed to talk to you, privately. Oh gods, that must have looked like I was… Sorry, I'd never do that to you," she said waving her paws in emphasis and trying to recover from her faux pas.

There was a slight, almost disappointed, "oh."

Her head whipping back up to stare at him. There was a lot of meaning and emotion packed into that little 'oh' of his.

 _That didn't sound like I think it did. Can't have. No way. Impossible. Not a chance._

 _…could it?_

"Oh?" she asked, staring at him. He looked at her and blushed more before looking away, his tail dropping.

 _But, But… he's never…_

" _Oh_?" she repeated with emphasis, her mind suddenly seeming to malfunction. They'd known each other since the Academy. Sure, every now and then he'd get a bit embarrassed around her or some she-wolf, especially when he was caught giving admiring glances; he'd certainly learned to look at more than just her chest in the academy boxing ring, but for as long as they'd known each other, she couldn't remember him _ever_ seeming to have more than just a passing admiration for someone; he'd never had a serious interest in anyone as far as she knew. And Especially not in _her._

Her pinwheeling mind suddenly started repeating what he had just said.

 _'Um, Nadine, I like you, I really do, but isn't this a little, um… fast?'_

 _'Um, Nadine, I like you, I really do'_

 _'I like you, I really do'_

 _Oh, gods did…_

"Did you just say that you, 'really like me'?" she blurted out not in control of her mouth.

"Um…" he glanced at her, now more embarrassed than she'd ever seen him, "O-of course I like you, you're my friend, my partner, have been for three years. Why wouldn't I like you" He said trying to smile like it was nothing but not looking her directly in the eye, just like every time he tried side-stepping something.

 _No, he can't, could he? He's always been so damned adamant about not wanting to date, always had that lone wolf thing. Otherwise I would have gone…_

Another part of her brain suddenly kicked in, overriding her embarrassment as she remembering the time of year, and her eyes narrowed.

"Define 'Like', is that like, 'like, like' or just 'like' or is that, it's mating season and I 'like' anything that's female?" she asked trying to pin him down with her glare.

 _I am not going to be just some winter snuggle!_

 _If he actually liked me he could have asked me out on a date anytime,_

 _Hell, I've wished he would have…_

She backtracked her thought process ignoring those spurious daydreams, still a bit peeved at the situation.

 _He never did ask me out, and some winter urge and a run-in, in the hallway isn't going to change that!_

"What?!" he asked looking up startled at that last part, "I'm not like that! I don't just like you because it's winter…" his eyes met hers, and then immediately tried to flee but failed miserably like they were now trapped, "I… ah…"

His eyes went a bit wide and he now looked a bit desperate and scared, like he was cornered, like he'd screwed up royally and was expecting to get utterly crushed.

 _But He's never said anything… he's never… why would he have not said…_

Her mind seemed to be stuck on repeat as they stared at each other. Part of her was terrified at what that look was saying, terrified and elated,

but mostly terrified.

Supremely terrified. And the fact that there was a part of her that was elated just terrified her more.

"Um, y-you know what, forget I a-asked," she said and reached back with a shaking paw to the door, "You d-don't need to a-answer that q-question."

Wolford's nose twitched and she froze with her paw on the lock. Her gaze seemed to narrow, tunneling until all she saw was his nose. His wolf's nose. His very good nose, one of the best noses in all of the precincts.

It twitched again.

Fangmeyer suddenly became aware of a nervous but warm butterfly feeling in the pit of her stomach that had cropped up at some point during this conversation, that and a warmth a bit lower too.

 _no, no, No, No,_ _No_

His nose twitched again and her narrowed tunnel vision shifted up to meet his eyes. Eyes that now instead of looking frightened looked… hopeful.

She couldn't see anything but the gold of his eyes, but she heard his voice, soft and scared but suddenly with a thread of desperate hope say, "Nadine, do… do you like me too?"

The warmth increased.

She heard an audible sniff, then the sound of his tail starting to wag.

This time his low voice was filled with a near wild hope, "Nadine, would… would you go out with me?"

She tried swallowing, speaking, doing anything but her body wasn't working.

She heard him take a few steps closer, her gaze still locked on his eyes.

"Felines and canids usually don't get along very well but Nadine, I've liked you since we met at the academy. Now after getting to work with you, know you… well to answer your question, I don't just 'like' you," he stopped right in front of her, looking right at her, looking at her like he wanted her to see right down into him and understand exactly what he meant.

Her paw was shaking on the door handle, making it rattle; She'd faced Major Friedkin at the academy without nerves, had faced the dreaded environment course without fear, she'd taken in dangerous criminals without issue, she'd been on the sharp end of some of the hardest SWAT team actions and never felt afraid. But in that moment looking into her partner's eyes, what she saw terrified her more than anything she could have imagined. It terrified her because something in her she'd only thought a passing whimsy was completely ecstatic and desperately wanted to respond to it.

He was right in front of her, looking up at her, holding her frozen with his eyes. He leaned up standing on his toes so that they were only inches apart. Her heart was pounding so loudly that she didn't think she could possibly hear anything else, but she heard what he said next clearly despite it.

"Nadine, I _like_ you."

The next thing she knew she was leaning down, kissing him.

Her eyes went wide as her brain kicked back into gear. She, Nadine Fangmeyer, tough as nails officer of Precinct 1, full on panicked.

She left the door with a broken hinge and its handle embedded in the wall as she fled.

* * *

Clawhauser closed the door to the empty meeting room, locking it and turned on the computer on the table.

A minute later the screen was showing a dozen small windows each showing a different mammal.

"Benji!" squealed the small shrill and excited voice of a tiny female shrew, "Did they get it? Did they get it? The magazine editor was soooo helpful after I told him who I was and what I wanted to do… and paid him, but he was worried that it wouldn't get there in time."

"Are you sure that the concert was the best idea?" came the voice of an older vixen, "He's never been very interested in concerts and he hates dancing."

"I already told you Vivian," replied another voice, this one from a matronly bunny, "You should have seen them at the concert last year after Nick's graduation, that's when I talked to Stu and we started planning for her wedding-"

A younger bunny that looked surprisingly like Judy broke in, "It was a good idea to get them to go to the festival, but to get them to actually get _together,_ well it's going to take more than that, Judy's soooo stuck up and prudish. She wants to rut him silly but she's too scared to make a move. And he seems to be just as stupid..."

The first bunny broke back in, "Jessica watch your language!"

There was the sound of a throat clearing and the image at the top of the screen, one that had a bright light behind the figure so that only a large horned outline could be seen, shifted.

"Everybody, quiet down. We've already discussed all of that. From what Clawhauser already told me it seems to have worked; They're going. Thanks to Mrs. Fru Fru, we'll have some of her small friends tailing them and reporting how it's going. If things don't go as well as we want that's why we have contingency plans. We won't use those plans unless necessary, understood Miss Jessica?" the doe gave an eye roll and a huffy 'yes', "Now, we need to go over the plan and the contingency plans one last time before things get rolling tomorrow, so let's get started."

* * *

It was close enough to the end of her shift that Fangmeyer had beelined straight to the front desk and clocked out for day, before nearly sprinting to the parking lot and diving into their assigned cruiser. She quickly readjusted the seat since Wolford had been driving earlier and then reached into her pocket to grab the key and get the hell out of there before he tracked her down.

She needed to get some space to think, to try and deal with the pandora's box of feelings he'd opened up, though considering her mortifying reactions she might just be better off going and finding a hole to hide in. That sounded like a reasonable option, probably her best option.

"Damnit! Where'd I put that key?!" she growled out loud checking her other pocket desperately, "Gods, I need to get out of here before he finds me. How the hell am I supposed to ever face him now? And how the hell has Ralph never showed any signs of how he felt before I bumped into him today?"

She stopped searching her pocket for a second as her mind suddenly recalled memories from back at the academy and every winter afterwards and connected a few subtle hints. Wolford had always had a lot of self-control, but thinking back on it, each progressive winter, especially this year, seemed to have been more taxing for him than the previous year.

 _Oh gods, if he's liked me for that long why the hell didn't he ever say anything?! And now I've made a complete fool of myself!_

She resumed her search with even more desperation, as that butterfly feeling that terrified her grew at those thoughts. The smart thing would probably be to talk to Ralph, sort this out... but the smart thing scared her and running felt so much easier.

 _If I've already made this much of a fool of myself, might as well go all the way, might get a discount on that hole to hide in if I do._

"Stupid wolves and their damned sense of smell, I won't be able to get within fifty feet of him without him knowing how I feel." she muttered now checking her belt, the idea of simply running and hiding was becoming more and more appealing, "maybe I can use Scent-Away, a _lot_ of Scent-Away. Maybe that way he won't track me down to whatever hole I find to live in. Now where did I put those godsdamned keys?!"

The pair of keys appeared hanging over the center console of the cruiser and jangled, catching her attention. More actually the gray paw holding them out from the backseat of the car jangled them. The gray _wolf_ paw holding them.

Fangmeyer stared at it for a solid 3 seconds before frantically trying to yank open the door. Unfortunately, someone had hit the car lock and her wild effort to escape only managed to rip the handle right off the door.

She looked at it stupidly for a few seconds before Wolford's voice spoke up.

"You told me to hang onto the keys earlier, oh and Scent-Away doesn't actually do that great a job of neutralizing scents. Musk-Mask does a better job. Though I'd still track you down, if nothing else you're my partner, though I'm really hoping you'll give me a chance and let me take you on a date."

Fangmeyer leaned forward groaning, with her paws on her head holding down her ears, hoping that she could curl into a ball and disappear.

"Just kill me now." She muttered.

There was an amused snort and she heard the sound of Wolford climbing over the center console and into the passenger seat.

He just sat there until she finally peeked over at him. He was grinning with a dopey smile looking at her, his tail wagging slowly next to him.

Seeing her peek, he finally broke the silence, "Nadine, you've always said that I'm stubborn and slow to change, and you're right." His voice lost it's happy tone, sobering as he continued, "I used to think that there was something wrong with me for falling for a tigress, you know how stupidly prideful wolves are and I've told you about how we think and feel, especially about fitting into the pack. It's taken me a while to get over that, hell compared to Wilde and Hopps falling in love, me falling for you looks normal by comparison."

Her heart was beating like a drum again, was that how he felt about her? He'd fallen in love with her? She could feel herself starting to shake again.

"I'm sorry Nadine, I should have asked you out long ago, but I'm asking you out now. I like you and I think you like me." She felt his paw gently touch her arm, "I'd like to see if we can be more than friends, so will you give me a chance?"

He waited there for a response but when she finally tried to speak, her throat was too dry to make a sound.

Wolford sighed and removed his paw. "Okay, I'm sorry for bringing it up then, just remember, I'm still your friend," She glanced over and saw him place the keys on the center console before he turned and opened the door dejectedly. "I'll see you day after tomorrow for our next shift then, partner." he said and started to exit the cruiser, tail limp.

The sight sent a sharp jarring pain through her somewhere deep in her chest and she reached out grabbing his arm, stopping him.

"Wait." She croaked.

He looked back at her questioningly, hopefully, and she felt another wave of that unfamiliar warm feeling wash through her next to the roiling terror and quickly looked forward through the windscreen trying to think of anything to say.

"I… I… uh, I never got to tell you why I pulled you aside earlier, " she started and then found herself rambling out loud about everything she'd overheard from the workroom and Clawhauser's call, about her thoughts and the nagging feeling and her worries, even about her hair-brained idea to try tailing Hopps and Wilde so that if anything happened they could back them up. Wolford patiently waited, listening until she ran out of stuff to say.

She looked over to him, half expecting to see him looking skeptical, but he had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I'd heard some rumors that there were a bunch of mammals related to Mr. Big's organization that are involved in this year's Valentine's day festival at the pier and stadium, that and there was a group of nastier mammals that broke off from the Bigs thinking that he'd gone soft. If something were going on at the Festival, especially with a dangerous group of those kind of malcontents, sending in two mammals that are so obviously ears over tail in love with each other is a perfect cover."

Fangmeyer tried listening but her attention was distracted slightly when she realized that the paw she'd grabbed his arm with had somehow ended up holding his hand.

 _How the hell did that happen?_

Her attention was pulled back when he turned to look right at her, "I'll go with you tomorrow on one condition," he smiled that big goofy grin of his with his ears perking up, "We'll go to the Valentine's day Festival and keep an eye on Hopps and Wilde but at the end of the night, if you've enjoyed yourself being there with me, you'll agree to at least try dating me."

After a moment, she nodded back.

 _Hopps and Wilde need someone backing them up on a dangerous undercover op. Anyway, what's the harm in going out with Ralph afterwards, maybe… maybe… we'll kick it off, I've always liked-, well even if we don't work out there's no harm in trying, right?_

"D-Deal," she managed to say.

"Great!" he said and squeezed her paw before letting go and getting out, closing the passenger door. Fangmeyer just looked at her now empty paw before she was startled by the driver side door opening.

"Scoot over, Nadine. You always complain about driving and I've got the feeling you don't want to right now, so I'll drop you off at your apartment."

She scooted over the central console and buckled the seat belt while Wolford adjusted the driver seat forward before starting the cruiser.

They didn't talk the entire drive back, though Fangmeyer kept glancing over at him still feeling mortified at dragging him into the room like that, then kissing him and fleeing.

That moment, though, the moment she'd come to her senses to find his muzzle against hers kept playing through her mind, over and over again. After only a few minutes of driving, she noticed that Wolford was taking subtle sniffs of the air and that his dopey grin was growing bigger and bigger along with the sound of his wagging tail beating against the door was getting louder. She hurriedly tried thinking of something else, _anything_ else.

 _Food, dinner, what are you going to have for dinner, it's way too early to have wolf …_

She shook her head,

 _Forget food, I need to just relax tonight, not think about anything that happened today. Just sit and vegge out on the couch watching tv._

 _Perfect. Nothing's a better brain killing activity than watching tv. I can grab a bowl of ice cream, or maybe just the whole tub of ice cream and sit on the couch watching tv and movies. Comfort food and the junk box, the cure to anything._

 _Isn't that new Sherlock Holmes movie on Nutflix now too? I've been wanting to see that movie, though that actor who plays Watson could be better. The wolf that plays him wasn't very good in the previews, hell, Ralph could have done a better job, he's more attractive anyway…_

 _Shit, damnit,_

 _forget movies. Ice cream, what flavor of ice cream am I going to eat? Chocolate or vanilla or both?_

A less subtle sniff and the sound of Wolford's tail banging against the door got louder.

…

Wolford pulled over in front of her apartment looking happier than she thought she'd ever seen him.

"I'll do some extra research tonight, see what I can find out about Hopps and Wilde's plans for tomorrow but I'll swing by to pick you up at noon, alright? The festival isn't supposed to start until 2 so that will give us some time to plan."

"Um… okay, sounds good, I'll, ah… see you tomorrow at noon then." She said as she hurriedly got out and closed the door.

She made the mistake of looking back to see Wolford staring back at her with a smile that made him look like a kit on Christmas morning. She flushed and hurriedly turned and ran inside and up to her apartment before slamming the door behind her and leaning against it.

She was one of the hardest, most badass cops in all of Zootopia, how had her partner made her resolve, her ability to stand up to anything fold like a house of cards? "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" She mumbled as she tried to slow her racing heart and think about tomorrow.

* * *

A/N

All blame for spawning the Wolfeyer fleet can be directed at MinscLovesBoo

Blame Him!

...

Thanks to the WildeHopps Navy for their quick deployment of the GoneKrazy3000 anti-typo defense system.

...

Conspiracy Count Down: 12 hours

...


	5. Chapter 5 - The Beginning

.

Mad Grinch Productions unleashes:

...

 **The Conspiracy**

 **...**

Disclaimer: There's no stopping it now

*Cackles of Laughter*

* * *

Chapter – 5 – The Beginning

Bogo looked at his phone and typed, 'Last call: Go, No Go' before hitting the send button.

The message went out through the secure app and as soon as all the recipients had read it, the message deleted itself off their phones.

His message flashed from yellow to green then disappeared,

 _Good, everyone's receiving the messages_

His phone started pinging as responses came in.

Claws: 'Go'

Big: 'Go'

V: 'Go'

Bon: 'Go'

Option-J: 'Go'

Eyes1: 'Go'

The messages continued to come in and disappeared as he clicked on each, acknowledging he'd received them.

A few second later and he'd received everyone's reply.

He typed in another message, but hesitated with his finger over the send button.

This was it. If he hit this, he was committing himself and once Bogo committed himself, he knew he wouldn't stop till it was finished or he was dead. It didn't matter if that was protecting the city, tracking down the most dangerous criminals, or getting a stupid bunny and fox to admit that they loved each other.

 _Thought that last one probably falls under protecting the city._

Bogo pressed the button.

The message, 'Begin Operation' turned yellow before a few moments latter flashing green and disappearing.

* * *

Nadine groggily awoke from the blissful depths of sleep to someone pounding on her head. She looked over from where she was languidly sprawled across her couch in a manner only felines were capable of and saw the coffee table in front of her.

She blinked as the throbbing in her head continued, and stared at the table, or at the empty tubs of ice-cream and a nearly empty bottle of tequila that covered it.

 _Ugh, tequila is nobody's best friend come morning._ The pounding came back a bit stronger, _okay why did I pull out the full emergency comfort kit last night?_

Nadine stretched a bit, starting to put the pieces back together, it had started with Hopps and Wilde and overhearing Clawhauser's call-

The next series of pounding throbs against her mind made her realize that it wasn't just the minor hangover but that someone was knocking on her door.

"Hang on a second." She called, getting up with one paw rubbing her head.

 _Gods, I hope I didn't make too much of a racket last night, I don't want to have to deal with that little old landlady berating me… again._

She threw on some bare essentials from the clothes pile she'd discarded last night; she, like a lot of felines simply didn't like sleeping while wearing anything, and she couldn't really care at the moment if her state of dress caused the landlady to have a conniption over 'propriety'. Ducking without even thinking about it, she exited through the living room doorway. It had become an ingrained habit after she'd whacked her head on it the first couple dozen times.

 _It's probably just Megan, she always likes to poke fun at me the morning after I do something stupid. She'd better have brought her usual peace offering though, I really need to eat something._ She shuddered, _well something besides ice cream._

She got along with most of her neighbors pretty well despite being the largest mammal and a predator in this apartment complex. It really was too small for a tiger, but she'd gotten comfortable here and she liked the location, plus she'd become good friends with her neighbor, a spunky little bobcat that had managed to claw her way into the Zootopia Fire Department despite her small size by sheer guts and determination. Megan reminded her a lot of Judy, just with much more catty snark.

 _Oh, gods. I think I made a fool of myself in front of Ralph yesterday and that was before I got home. Wait, didn't Megan come over? I think she was the one that suggested pulling out the tequila last night..._

Nadine winced at the throbbing in her head and ducked into her kitchen long enough to down some aspirin before heading to the front door

 _Stupid little cat, how the hell can she drink like that? I can handle beer, I like a good beer, but why the hell do I always let her convince me to pull out tequila?_

She opened the front door and as expected, was met with an overly cheery face of her neighbor and friend (though she thought that second part was on probation until her hangover dissipated).

"Gooood Morning Nadine! Sleep well?" the bobcat asked in a too pleased voice that should have set off every alarm she had. Her mind though was distracted by the throbbing and the smell of Megan's secret hangover breakfast dish, a sort of oatmeal with brown sugar and honey along with a few other spices that came together to make the normally bland dish not only enjoyable but perfect for curing a tequila night. She'd apparently perfected it through rigorous trial and error.

"Get your furry ass and that food in here Megan," Nadine nearly growled and wincing, "I need to figure out what exactly happened last night and how much trouble I'm in with the landlady before my partner arrives."

"Oh, don't worry about that, I talked to Mrs. Woolstien this morning. She's not going to make a fuss; gave me a whole lecture about how every girl needs a strong ram in their lives and that it was about time you found a mate, said that I needed to stop living 'like a wild uncivilized amazon barbarian' and settle down too."

Nadine winced again rubbing her head, "Sure, sure… she's always talking about how a girl needs…" Nadine suddenly froze, " _How the hell do you know about Ralph?!_ I only just started dating him! I mean, _going_ to date him! And he's _not_ my mate…" she finished adamantly though she might have looked away and muttered, 'yet'

"Well given the fact that everybody in the apartment building knows him because he's been your partner on the force for nearly three years and that you, Miss 'nothing flusters me' came in blushing like a school girl when he dropped you off yesterday, some mammals have been speculating and telling very believable rumors." The bobcat said smiling like she was stealing the cream.

Nadine banged her head against the door and groaned, but Megan wasn't done.

"Oh and then there was also that little bit after I left for the night, where you seemed to have a party for one and were yelling out his name."

Nadine thought her eyes might have popped out of her head as she stared at Megan.

"Your lying." She said flatly. Despite a sudden dreadful sinking feeling in her stomach.

She _had_ slept exceptional well despite the tequila and then there were those dreams, some of which now seemed like they might not be dreams (though the ones with Ralph sure as hell had to be) and if she focused past the pain in her head she thought that she felt-

Megan's smirk shifted to 'I just stole the cream and got away with it too', "Nope, not a single bit. That old goat below us was banging on the ceiling with his broom yelling at the 'bad kitty' to quiet down before his wife told him he could either join her in the bedroom or put in earplugs and sleep on the couch, because that 'bad kitty' wasn't going to be the only girl having that much fun. Sure got him to stop banging, well… banging on the ceiling anyway."

Nadine slid down the door to sit in a mortified groaning heap on the ground.

Megan couldn't hold back a delighted snicker, "Oh you were quite the ' _bad_ kitty' last night with some of what you said! I still can't believe you've abandoned team feline and fallen for some wolf, but you must _really_ like him considering that roar at the end. I'm pretty sure everyone in the entire building heard that!"

"No, no, no. Oh gods no, that's all just some dream, I've had dreams like that before, this is just another one."

Megan patted her head, still smirking, "Sorry sweetie, but the entire apartment can testify that this time it wasn't a dream. You need to just give up and admit that Nadine Fangmeyer, The Great Tigress, ZPD Badass Supreme, Miss 'I Don't Need a Male Telling Me What to Do', has fallen in love with… with… a _wolf!" and she_ burst out laughing.

Fangmeyer stopped banging her head against the door, long enough to glare at Megan and growl, "Oh shut it!"

Megan wiped a tear away, still chuckling, "So you admit you're in love with him?"

"I admit nothing!" Fangmeyer growled, "He's going to have to work hard if he wants to get me to admit that! Now get in here and help me clean up before Ralph gets over here and see's what a complete mess he's turned me into. I have a reputation to upkeep." She finished getting up and waving angrily at the bobcat to come in.

"Why bother? He already knows." She said pointing with her thumb casually over to the side.

Nadine stuck her head out of the door and looked where Megan was pointing only to see Ralph standing in the hallway wearing a nice set of casual clothes that did a great job of showing off his toned physique. She could even see some flowers poking out from behind his back.

Her eyes moved up to meet his just as his moved up from the part of her chest he'd been staring at, that part that was visible with her leaning out the door… and that her very minimal amount of clothing was doing almost nothing to hide.

He was smiling that dopey stupid lovable smile of his with his tail wagging while he blushed ever so slightly.

Someone must have replaced the apartment's dinky heating system with something new and apparently overpowered because the temperature seemed to skyrocket.

Nadine barely got her head back into her apartment before she slammed the door shut, breathing in gasps.

 _That little traitorous pussycat! She set me up!_

The door slammed back open and her paw shot out, grabbed Megan and yanked her into the apartment before the door slammed shut again.

" _What happened to us girls sticking together?!_ You should have _warned me_ that he was right there!" She hissed, though the smaller feline didn't look intimidated in the least.

"Oh Nadine you're already a lost cause, no point it trying to save you now. Plus," she giggled, "Did you see how he looked when he saw you?" Nadine blushed harder and tried to stop her but Megan continued, "That was utterly adorable. That was even cuter than when I saved him downstairs from Mrs. Woolstien's lecture about taking proper care of his new mate. She apparently thought that he was skimping on his male duty; how did she put it, oh yes," She used a rather good impression of Mrs. Woolstien's crotchety old voice,

"A girl has _needs!_ Any _properly_ raised male knows a mate's duty isn't done when he's had his fun. It's only done once he's satisfied _all_ of his mate's _needs_! You'd better not leave that nice girl hanging again or I'll thump you with my broom, you understand me youngster?"

Nadine just looked at her friend in horrified disbelief, well more like horror. That was exactly the kind of thing that little old biddy might do, gods save her, or anyone she decided to lecture.

It took her a few moments to try and contain her feelings regarding the absolute nightmare this was turning into. She managed to just quarantine that part of her mind and resolved to not deal with it right now, maybe not ever.

"Stop your damned smirking, Megan," she groaned, the throbbing in her head now worse, "And where the hell is that food?"

"Oh, I gave that to your _mate_ ," Megan emphasized the word despite her groan, actually Nadine thought she probably did it just to get her to groan, "If you want my hangover cure, you'll have to let him in." she smirked nonchalantly in that smugly proprietarily feline way.

 _That's against the rules to use that against another cat!_ Nadine thought and scowled at her, which just made her look more smugly satisfied.

Nadine growled, slammed open the door again and reached out to haul her somewhat confused, embarrassed and delighted partner into her apartment, before slamming the door close.

"Food." She demanded tersely. She'd decided to try ignoring everything but the next immediate thing she needed to do in an attempt to ignore thinking about how utterly screwed she was, well not literally, that would actually be enjoyable-

She immediately put a brutal end to that thought, and then shot it a few more times to make sure it would stay down. She was _not_ going to screw Ralph's brains out, they had work to do today. She emptied the clip of her metaphorical gun into that idea just for good measure.

The wolf in question held out Megan's bowl with the flowers laid across it.

She reached out to take the bowl but as she grabbed it and her paws touched against his, she recognized the orange flowers with black accents.

They were tiger lilies.

She looked up from the bowl and flowers as Ralph withdrew his paws, clasping them behind his back and looking at her almost shyly.

"Ralph," she said in a small choked voice.

"They, ah… they reminded me of you." He said quietly, "They're beautiful and they smell nice. And the florist said that it's a hardy flower too, so… I thought they were perfect."

"Ralph…" _don't choke up and cry, don't choke up and cry,…_ she repeated to herself, blinking hard.

"Thank you." She finally managed to get out, drawing the bowl and flowers close.

His wagging tail sped up, and his smile nearly made her wavering resolve to not cry, break. He looked up at her then down to where she was holding the bowl and flowers against her chest and blushed, quickly raising his eyes back up.

"I'll… ah," he couldn't seem to help taking a quick look at her, which made his already up ears, perk like they were ready to jump off his head, "I'll just go wait in the living room while you get ready, and…" he gave the bowl another look, this time blushing furiously, "um… eat." He finished with a flustered gesture and at her nod, turned and hurried through the door, whacking his head on the low clearance, with a thump and a 'Oww!'.

"Ralph!?" Nadine asked a bit worriedly.

"I'm alright! Perfectly alright, just forgot about the low doors here." He said in an embarrassed flustered tone.

"Oh, you two are too cute," Megan said smirking like this was the best show she'd ever seen, "Make sure to tell me all about it tonight," she headed to the front door but before she closed it beind her, she popped her head back in and with a wicked smile said, "Or tomorrow if you're _busy_ tonight."

The door closed before Nadine could formulate any response. She looked back from the door to the bowl and flowers and then to the living room before giving her head a shake and heading into the kitchen.

She set the bowl down and then not having a vase, got out a glass from the top cabinet that was in easy reach for her as her head almost hit the ceiling. She filled it with water before placing the flowers in it and set it in the middle of her small table.

She ate the entire bowl robotically while staring at those flowers and thinking about what Ralph had said.

It was only when her spoon came up empty, that her attention shifted off of the flowers and back down to the now empty bowl.

Then something that should have occurred to her earlier clicked in her mind.

She'd been working with Wolford for three years and they'd shared a lot in that time. One of the things she'd asked about right at the beginning was some odd behavior of his regarding food, such as always insisting on paying for his own food. He'd explained that it was a sort of cultural trait for wolves that had stuck around just like the urge to howl. Food was important, being able to acquire your own food was seen as a sign of independence, the act of give and receiving food was seen as something almost intimate; it was a sign of a relationship, that one was accepting responsibility for providing for another, like for one's kits… or for one's mate.

She stared at the empty bowl.

The bowl that she'd asked for from him.

The bowl that he'd given to her.

Ralph had told her that for wolves, they would always split the cost of dinners on dates until it became serious, like being engaged serious.

The spoon dropped from her fingers and clattered on the table.

Had he done that on purpose? He hadn't made the food, but she hadn't paid for it either. And after he'd given it to her he'd blushed hard,

 _Oh gods…_

He'd been blushing _very_ hard as he'd made his flustered way to her living room-

Her mind crashed again at that.

 _The living room…_

More accurately her mind had already had a complete train wreck thinking about the food he'd given her and that she'd accepted. Because for wolves that meant a _Hell,_ with a capital godsdamned H, lot more than it did for other mammals. (She'd need to ask him, because from what she understood that was more along the lines of accepting a proposal in wolf culture, or maybe not asking for clarification on that point was a better idea) Now her mind felt like a second train had crashed into the wreck of the first. A train that was carrying something highly dangerous and volatile, like gasoline or explosives.

 _Ralph is in my living room, sitting on my couch._

 _Ralph, the wolf. The wolf with a too godsdmanded good nose is sitting on my couch…_

 _The couch where I was this morning… and last night… when I was..._

"Oh. Fuck."

She upended her table scrambling for the door. Megan's bowl went flying and broke, not that she had the mental capacity to care about that at the moment, in fact, she'd barely managed to save Ralph's flowers before she went careening out the door.

"Ralph!" she yelled then realized she had no idea what she was going to say next.

She barely managed to not brain herself on the doorway to the living room as she came rushing in and around to the couch.

Then she came to a skidding halt, realizing two things.

One, she still had absolutely no idea where to go from there or what to do next. None. Zero. Nadda. Nothing.

Two, while Ralph's control was good, very good in fact, it was still winter.

Ralph was sitting on the couch holding a piece of clothing, but despite his almost casual position he was so tense he looked about to break. He looked up at her and his gold eyes that usually had a glimpse of goofy humor behind them now also had something else, something primal. It sent a shiver down her spine that caused a wave of terror that froze her in her tracks. Terror because that shiver had absolutely completely delighted and thrilled her. There wasn't a single word that described that look, but longing, desire, and lust were good starting points.

She could see his dark nose flare as he breathed in the smell that still permeated the room from last night, a smell even she could easily pick up now that her mind wasn't sleep muddled. Ralph breathed in deeply again before standing up and taking one step so that he was right in front of her, almost touching her, while she stood frozen like a statue.

His nose flared again ruffling the fur right above her bra as he breathed in, and then in a low voice that nearly vibrated with a growl, a voice that sent another shiver through her, he said while holding up the piece of clothing, "Is this my shirt?"

Her eyes managed to tear themselves away from his and look at what he was holding.

 _Oh damn, that is his shirt._

It took her mind a second to remember that in the chaos last week, some of their clothes had gotten mixed up in the trunk of the cruiser when their bags had tumbled around while partially unzipped. Ralph had returned the ZPD workout clothes of hers that had ended up in his bag after they'd quickly cleaned up the mess at the end of that day. His shirt had ended up with her stuff and she'd meant to give it back... she just hadn't gotten around to it. She'd even left it folded next to the tv so that he could pick it up the next time he stopped by.

"Your scent is all over it." he growled, sounding very pleased and she blushed.

How the hell did he growl like that? He needed to stop, because it was sending more shivers through her. And why would her scent be all over it? and why was it on the couch?

 _Oh. Fuck... last night… I… oh, Fuck._

"Um… sorry?" she squeaked, staring at the ZPD workout shirt, not knowing how else to respond.

Her eyes followed the shirt as he dropped it and it hit the ground. She was watching it so intently that she missed the fact that he'd reached around her neck until his paws pulled her head down and his cheek ran against hers. He growled into her ear, "You don't need my clothes, if you want my scent."

This time the shiver that ran through her was more like a bolt of lightning.

She jerked her head back and looked straight into those fiery gold eyes of his. Those eyes just inches away, right in front of her.

Unlike yesterday, this time he closed the distance between them and kissed her.

In that moment Nadine was pretty sure that the world exploded, her vision seemed to go white and her ears felt like they were ringing. The next thing she knew he was pulling her down into a deeper kiss and she was holding him against her. Part of her mind was confused, part was trying to regain control, and part was wildly cheering her on and trying to club down the other two.

She could feel him growling low and pleased through the kiss and then found herself responding, deepening it, nearly purring back.

In what felt like only a few seconds, she found herself on top of her partner, sprawled on the couch, while they kissed each other furiously. Her bra had vanished and his shirt was open as their paws frantically clutched at each other.

She moved against him, kissing him hard and felt him buck up in response, a hard length pressing against her through the layers of fabric between them.

The part of her mind ecstatically cheering and pushing her on, had clubbed down all opposition, and the feeling of his hardness press against her sex was like he'd flipped a switch.

She pushed down, grinding against him, kissing him wildly.

Her nose was filled with the musky woody scent of his fur, she could taste his mouth, feel the pads of his paws running through her fur, felt his muscled chest pressed against her breast, feel him bucking, rubbing hard and hot against her as she ground down on him and he seeming to grow with every movement.

His muzzle escaped her mouth for a split second and nipped her under the chin right at the corner of her jaw and neck and that sent her over the edge with a roar the likes of which she never sounded before as she pushed hard against him, clenching, holding, shaking, roaring.

He bucked up hard against her heavier weight on top of him, and she felt his claws dig almost painful into her back before his howl broke out to join her roar.

Nadine collapsed on top of Ralph, still shaking as waves of raw sensation seemed to ripple through her, ebbing down from that white hot peak.

As she regained control of herself, a couple things became apparent to her rebooting mind. First, she was purring involuntarily and didn't seem able to stop. Second Ralph was trailing light kisses and nips along her neck, though that might be the reason she was involuntarily purring. Third, there was a pounding noise that sounded familiar. She focused, or tried to, since Ralph was being supremely distracting and part of her recovering mind simply wanted to snuggle and purr and not care about the rest of the world.

There were a few more thumping noises, and then a barely decipherable yell.

"You mangy kitty! Keep it down up there!" came the mad, wheezing voice, "Either go rut your puppy somewhere else or buy a pair of muzzles!"

Another voice, this one from the wall next to them and clearly recognizable as Megan's, responded, "Oh stuff a hoof in that hole of yours and leave Nadine and her mate alone, otherwise I'll tell your wife that your screwing with their screwing! How do you think she'll respond to that?!"

"…"

The voice of the beaver that lived on the other side of her apartment joined in, "Leave them be Herald, you old goat! If we have to listen to your bleating, then you can listen through some roaring and howling. They at least only make a lot of noise at the end of their rutting; You bleat like you've broken your leg the entire damn time!"

"I don't bleat the entire time!" came an angrily yelled response.

"Sure you do," Megan shouted in return, and even while shouting she sounded smug, "You bleated for a full twenty second last night, then your wife made you go get that little blue pill, before the bleating started up again."

The kisses had trailed off as Ralph started listening to the now growing argument as a few other neighbors chimed in with their views. Without those kisses to distract her, her mind was coming back online and realizing just how bad of a situation she was in.

"Oh gods, I'm going to have to move out and go hide in a hole for the rest of my life." Nadine said, horrified, as the argument grew with most of the apartments agreeing that a few roars and howls were better than constant bleating. There was even a suggestion that they pool some money and buy a muzzle for Harold as a gift to his wife so that she wouldn't have to listen to his bleating either. That received an angry bleating shout in return with a few colorful curses and while most of the other apartments applauded the idea and promised to pitch in.

There was a throaty chuckling growl, a kiss, and then Ralph suggested, "You can always come live with me."

She turned back to face him and opened her mouth to shout at him that this was all his fault, but his mouth closed on hers and took advantage of its open state to give her a kiss that sent her reeling.

She could feel the hard length pressed against her throb, and while that one part of her recovering mind noted with delight that it was far larger than she thought it might be, and screamed 'Jackpot!' the other two portions it had clubbed down earlier tackled it, and gave her a chance to make a sane response.

So first she finished kissing him, because that was one hell of a good kiss, and it would be a crime to waste it, but then she quickly got off him.

He was still looking at her with those gold eyes, full of that desire and only partially sated.

 _If he stays in this room with our scent and smells of sex and arousal were going to end up rutting all day long._

Part of her screamed in triumph at that while the other parts trying to hold that bit at bay shouted at her to do something, and do it know damnit!

Not knowing what else to do she reached down and picked him up bridal-style and spirited for the door of the room.

The damndably cunning wolf took the opportunity to kiss her which distracted her so much that it was only the long-ingrained practice of navigating her home that prevented her from first running into the wall and then, when she swerved to avoid that, to duck and not clock her head on the door frame.

His kiss ended with a very pleased growl and he was just about to start again, which would probably have led to her demise, because the part that wanted so badly to just rut him right there and then was breaking free. Before it could take back control she dropped him.

Before it could take back control she dropped him.

He landed with a started yelp on her bed, (She was thanking every god she knew that she'd recently washed it), and she sprinted back out of the bedroom and slammed the door closed, putting her weight against it and breathing hard.

There were a few moments of quiet, before she heard Ralph call out in a pleading questioning whine, "Nadine?"

Her heart stopped at that before suddenly jumping into overdrive. She looked frantically around, grabbed the book case next to the door and dragged it over a few feet till it blocked the door so that she couldn't easily get through it and start rutting him silly.

There was a full on whine this time, making her very glad shed done more than just shut the door.

"Ralph," She started trying to control her breathing and not tear through her barricade to get to him, "We need to take a breather, we can't keep doing this, we've got a job to do remember? Hopps and Wilde." huh, she'd nearly forgotten about that herself. Made for a damned handy excuse though.

There was a pause and then a very throaty growly, "Later then?"

She had to sit down against the book shelf because the way he said that made her legs wobble.

"I'm Not Answering That!" she said as sternly as she could. They'd known each other too long to be able to convincingly tell a direct lie to each other. So lying was out and she couldn't just say, 'yes' either because then even that bookshelf wouldn't stop her.

 _We haven't even started dating yet!_

Another whine tore at her heart.

She needed to get away from him for a few moments, let both of them cool down. He was running high on winter instincts and she was running high, well high on him, and that was only making it harder for her wolf.

 _When the hell did he become my wolf?_

"Ralph," she said a bit shakily, "I'm going to get a shower and get dressed while you cool down a bit. Like you said yesterday, this is a bit fast. I'll let you get some control over your mating season frenzy back, then we go and cover Wilde and Hopps for the day. _Then_ you take me out on a date tomorrow. Sound good?"

She heard the most heartbreakingly desperate whine she'd ever imagined. It had her trying to shift the book case out of the way before she heard him take a few deep breaths and respond with a bit more control but still with such longing that it hurt to hear him speak, "Okay… your right Nadine, we… we got a little crazy there. Give me some… some time to get back under control."

She sighed and got up, heading for the bathroom but before she'd gone more than a few steps his voice stopped her.

"Nadine?" he asked.

She looked back toward the blocked door of her room, "Yes?"

"I love you."

She stood there petrified for a moment, until a tear traced down her cheek. Her paws clenched and shook and in a sobbing shout she yelled back at him, "You. Stupid. Dope! YOU CAN'T SAY THAT YET!" she choked up on a sob before finishing in a near full shout, "I'M NOT READY TO ADMIT THAT I LOVE YOU YET!" before turning and sprinting into the bathroom and closing the door behind her hoping that it would block out the rest of the world as she cried.

* * *

A/N

Thought this was the final chapter? Well so did we.

.

Turns out that this is like a biological warfare Fluff weapon that's mutated and we've... um, sort of lost control of it.

This story does have a end, and its not that far away but things are about to get crazy,

so run if you can but I don't think it's going to help. Only Grinches are immune to Fluff based weapons, the rest of you are screwed!

...

Happy Valentine's Day

…

Conspiracy Count Down: 0 hours

…


	6. Chapter 6 - Drastic Measures

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operation Clock: +0 hours

…

Disclaimer: The Fox and Bunny MUST Kiss. That makes this necessary.

* * *

Chapter – 6 – Drastic Measures

Bogo looked at his phone one last time before putting it away.

It had started and there was no stopping it now. Most of the operation would be handled by his subordinates, but he would keep a close eye on it in case it needed his direct intervention. He had other matters to attend to today as well, but he'd made sure that he would be closer than any of them imagined, just in case. Anyways, there _was_ a Gazelle concert that he was determined to see and most importantly of all, even more important that the operation, there was-

"Dear are you done playing matchmaker?" came the amused voice of his wife as she entered their bedroom.

Bogo let out a cough before turning to her, working to hide any signs of embarrassment, "Ehem… I, ah… don't know what you're talking about."

"You're blushing again dear," she said, leaning against the doorway and openly eyeing him before coming over and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your little secret. I think it's adorable that you're trying to get those two cute officers of yours together."

Another peck on the cheek and she passed him heading for the door, "Come on, I've been waiting _for weeks_ to go to this festival with you, plus we might even get to see your two cuties kiss."

It took Bogo a second to break his gaze off of his wife's retreating form. He coughed once more and with an exertion of pure will forced the blush away and followed her.

He needed to make sure that Wilde and Hopps got together or they might bring the city to its knees but he also needed to make sure that this day was special for his wife or else his whole world might come crashing down.

* * *

Jessica Hopps watched as the 'Begin Operation' text disappeared from her phone and smirked as she looked back at her laptop. She had to admit that the plan was good, but it could be better.

She logged back onto MuzzleBook and started typing.

Those two idiots were _so_ oblivious to the obvious, that for the plan to really work Judy and Nick would need a little kick to get them thinking in the right direction. And she was in the perfect position to shake their entrenched notions about each other up.

It hadn't been hard to find the most bigoted ass, though that was unfair to equines, from Judy's highschool days and contact him on MuzzleBook. The fact that he was a stuck up buck from a wealthy family and had a reputation for relying on his daddy's money and persistently chasing any and every tail that he saw, made him great for this; the fact that he'd tried to bed Judy only for her to publicly reject him made him perfect.

It hadn't been hard for her to casually start a conversation with him, all she needed to do was post some comments on topics he'd commented on; her profile picture had gotten him to start chatting her up almost immediately. Then amid the chatter and his poor attempts to try and suggest she should go out with him despite the fact that she was already dating someone, she made some casual small talk about her family and her sister. A few mentions of Judy and how her poor sister was in the big city, all by herself, without even a boyfriend, and his focus shifted. Leading him on was easier than dangling a carrot on a string in front of him.

A few remarks to stroke his ego, reinforcing his exaggerated self-image of himself. A little gossip about Judy and her partner on the force, a _fox (_ gasp!), and how Judy had told her that since she didn't have a boyfriend she was going out with him on Valentine's day just so she wouldn't be alone. It was like watching a shark scenting blood in the water.

Playing him was frankly so easy it was _scary._ Feed his ego, poke his bigotry, and hint that her sister might be a bit desperate and as the coup de grace, sting his pride where it hurt the most by mentioning her previous rejection.

The colossal ass wasn't even very subtle in his attempt to trying pumping her for all the information he could, clearly planning to try and add Judy as one more sexual conquest. If it wasn't for the fact that Jessica was sure that he was going to get his ass, and hopefully his balls, kicked by her sister she would have felt bad about it.

She finished sending the reply to him, giving him the location and time of Judy and Nick's meet up which was just what he'd been probing her for, happy that she was done with this sleazeball. She'd feel better if she could have sicked the police on this creep, though, in a way she was sending him to the ZPD giftwrapped and maybe with flowers and chocolates too.

Jessica shrugged at the thought.

Drastic times called for drastic measures, and pointing this bigoted ass in Judy and Nick's direction was sure to shake things up, and as a bonus, if he was as much of a degenerate prideful idiot as Jessica had come to believe he was, it would probably do the community a favor to let her sister deal with him.

Just to be safe though, Jessica pulled out her phone and shot Fru Fru and her team a warning. They'd have eyes on them and if things went to hell in a handbasket, as could happen when you were playing with fire, it was always a good to have a way to take back control of the situation, like maybe having a few polar bears on standby to stomp out that fire, or a particular creep of a buck.

* * *

If there was one thing in her small apartment that that was decidedly not comfy, Nadine thought, it was the shower. On the good side, there was always enough hot water which made up for some of its downsides like the fact that it was _water_ , (she considered most things that involved water and getting soaked a trial to be endured, not something to be enjoyed, though there were a few, a very few, notable exceptions… like hot tubs). Her shower, while it did have plenty of hot water just simply wasn't sized for a tiger and the spray nozzle only came up to her chin. It made even a hot shower a chore rather than something she could enjoy.

Today however, it was almost a blessing because her ritual grumbling and griping about the shower served to distract her from everything else that had happened this morning. It had done a great job of that in fact, right up until she got out and started drying herself off. It was then that she noticed a faint hint of wolf's scent… her wolf's scent to be exact.

 _Oh, god, thinking of Ralph as 'my wolf' isn't helping._

She'd made sure to wash herself thoroughly, because this morning had been a prime example of how scent, with all their accompanying pheromones combined with mating season, could break anyone's control. So why could she still smell Ralph's scent? She couldn't seem to figure out where the faint trace of scent was coming from, not even sniffing around helped. No matter where she moved her nose to smell it remaining irritatingly vague. It wasn't on her arms or her chest or anywhere else on her as far as she could tell, nor was it anywhere else in the room; where ever she moved her nose to smell, there was that constant faint scent of Ralph.

She glanced in the mirror and saw her rather confused looking reflection, when it suddenly hit her and her eyes crossed trying to look down at her muzzle.

Her paw shot up to the side of her cheek where Ralph's muzzle had rubbed against hers right before he kissed her. She made a few idiotic attempts to try and sniff the spot, which made her look more stupid than if she'd tried chasing her own tail.

 _He… marked me… He MARKED Me!?_

Her heart was speeding up again,

 _He wouldn't have done that on purpose, not without asking._

Her breathing was coming faster and more ragged and she thought back to what he'd said through the door. That 'I love you'.

 _Oh, god. If he's felt that way for so long… and then after sitting on that couch surrounded by my scent of arousal from last night… he probably didn't even realize that he started scent marking me._

This was serious, very _very_ serious. This wasn't just some custom to wolves like with giving and accepting food, though that was bad enough, scent marking was so common, so universally accepted, that it was about as significant as giving a ring, in some cases more so.

Nadine's breathing was coming in gasps and she had to sit down before her legs gave out. Scent marking wasn't just about attraction, it wasn't uncommon for mammals to sometimes mark things important to them or something they were protective of, many parents even scent marked their kits or cubs. It was less about attraction and more about possession and protection. There was only one reason to mark another mammal that wasn't your child; you didn't mark someone if you were attracted to them, you didn't even mark someone if you were having sex with them. Marking someone was declaring, that they were your _mate_ , your _life-_ mate; it was bluntly, an act of _claiming._ An unmistakable statement that you were choosing that mammal to start a _family_ with. And it wasn't something that could be done on a whim either, scent marks were different from a mammal's normal everyday scent, it was a holdover of older traits, it took emotion more than thought to actually be able to scent mark something.

 _Oh gods, he did that without even thinking about it, did it unconsciously. This isn't lust, he doesn't just 'like' me or have a crush, like puppy love, he doesn't even 'like, like' me, he's already decided that he wants to marry me. He's as far gone as Wilde is, he's just been hiding it better._

Thoughts of what this might mean for her rolled through her mind, this wouldn't be staying over at each other's places or moving into a shared apartment, this would mean moving in _together_ , permanently. This would mean rings, and a wedding. This would mean having cubs together… and could they even have cubs together? She knew a coywolf in the legal department, but that was two different species of canids. She'd never even thought about having cubs before. She didn't want any right now, but what about later? And what about Ralph, some of her fondest memories of him were when they went to do show and tell outreaches at schools; Ralph loved kids, was great with them, he had all the makings of a great father. What if she couldn't give him that?

Nadine was sitting, her knees drawn up to her chest and her tail wrapped around them, breathing hard. And with every breath she drew in she could smell that ever so faint scent that wasn't hers.

He'd _barely_ marked her, but it was still there, undeniable proof _right there_ on the side of her muzzle.

She looked back at the shower, but knew that that would be futile. There was a reason that people joked that the only thing harder to get rid of than skunk spray was a scent mark. Marks weren't like the everyday scent you might pick up from close contact and could easily be wash away, nature had evolved scent marks to stay once placed, it could take weeks, sometimes months for a mark to fade completely.

She looked back at the door, in the direction her wolf was. She really only had two choices, she could go and reject him… or she could accept his claim.

Nadine started shaking. The moment she'd thought of her options she'd known what her choice would be. It was one of those things that you could debate and worry over all you wanted, but way deep down, you already knew what your decision was from before you'd even thought the question. It didn't matter how much you tried to delude yourself or talk yourself into a different choice because somewhere in the back of your mind you'd already chosen.

He'd marked her. She could accept the claim, mark him, claim him in turn… or she could reject him, make it known publicly that she'd refused his claim.

One or the other.

Meaning to or not, he had marked her and the answer was hers and hers alone to make.

A partial mark or not, it was still there for anyone who got close enough to smell, and he couldn't take it back.

One or the other

To accept or to reject.

She wasn't ready for this, wasn't prepared.

…

Nadine had once thought that she could face anything, had in fact been able to face every challenge head on... up until now. She simply could not bring herself to go and face Ralph. But she couldn't hide in her bathroom either, though she'd seriously considered doing just that.

Major Friedkin, the polar bear drill sergeant at the academy, had taught her well though. She'd warned everybody that someday, somewhere they'd run into a situation that would give them no good options, that couldn't be solved by their usual means. It was in those situations that the best officers would think outside of the box, if no solution or option was presented, then find one; if you couldn't find one, then make one. She could still remember the lectures she'd given them.

'If you find yourself facing an obstacle you can't surmount, then go around it!'

'But ma'am you said we're not allowed to go around the ice wall'

'then get a ladder and go over it'

'Ma'am, it's against the rules to bring anything but the standard issue equipment onto the course, and ladders aren't standard issue.'

'Then make one!'

'How are we supposed to do that? Ah… Ma'am.'

'That's up to you, but I've seen it done before. If you can't claw your way up that Ice wall, then find another way to get to the other side. There's not a single one of you that can get to the end of this course, use your brains and figure it out. Because if you can't figure out that solution when it matters for real, _your dead_! Hell, a _bunny_ with enough brains and determination could finish that course. Shut it! That means stop laughing _Cadet_ _Delgato,_ or do you want to do that ice wall ten times? Good, do you all know who currently holds the record for that course?'

'Um… the Chief of Police?'

"That's right, Mason Adrian Bogo. He failed to get up that wall every time he tried. Do you know how he completed the course and got that record?'

'…'

'On his third try, he didn't attempt going over the wall, he went into the water, under it and punched his way through the ice on the other side.'

' _no fucking way_ ' ' _Hell, that's_ crazy' ' _are we supposed to do that?!_ '

'Did I give you all permission to talk? The QUITE down! I don't expect any of you to try doing what he did, what I expect is that you to come up with your own way to complete that course. Now get up and try it again.'

Nadine couldn't face Ralph because now that she'd showered all his other scent away, there wasn't a chance in hell that he wouldn't smell his mark on her, and she couldn't answer, well… she could, but it'd take Chief Bogo himself to drag that out of her.

So, after her mind had finally stopped panicking, she'd thought _hard_.

If he smelled the mark on her, she was royally fucked. She might not want to give an answer but she knew herself well enough to know that his look while waiting for an answer would almost certainly break her. So then, she couldn't let him smell it. Problem was, she couldn't get rid of it. Solution: Hide it.

Nadine wasn't one for perfume or fragrances or really any makeup in general, but she had some stuff left over from years ago, dating all the way back to highschool when she'd experimented with different looks. Luckily there was still a bottle of old perfume. She emptied it, nearly gagging on the floral scent. Then she got a bottle of Scent-Away Deodorizer out from her gym bag and emptied that too, then just for good measure grabbed the spare can of Scent-Away from her supplies, and used that entire can as well.

It took a few minutes for her nose to stop burning from all the aerosol, but when it did she couldn't smell the perfume or even her own scent let alone his mark.

 _Even the best nose in the precinct isn't perfect. And if he manages to smell anything through all that deodorized then he'll only smell the perfume._

It might just be delaying the inevitable, that mark was still there, just hidden, but she didn't have to deal with it today.

Feeling far better now that she'd prevented that particular crisis, she wrapped a towel around herself and headed out of the bathroom, her normal confidence and cheer finally starting to come back.

Another problem, though, quickly became apparent but compared to the one she'd just dealt with it seemed relatively minor.

Seeing as all her clean clothes were in her bedroom, she headed that way.

Knocking on the door, she called out, "Ralph? Are you okay now?"

"Um… mostly. Sorry about earlier. I, ah… after yesterday, and then the room with your scent and smell of… um, ya, sorry. I… kind of lost control."

Nadine snorted at that, grabbed the bookcase and started shoving it out of the way.

"What's the expression I'm looking for?" she said as she pushed, "Oh ya, 'At least buy me dinner first',"

His embarrassed whine from the other side of the door along with his, "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" brought a smile to her face. Despite their almost romp earlier he was still the friend she'd come to care about, still her fun loving partner that she could joke with.

"Never." she said smiling, happy that whatever this was going on between them, that she hadn't lost the wolf she knew.

"You kissed me first! Why can't I kiss you back?" he asked still sounding embarrassed.

"Dinner first, then we'll see." She finished pushing the bookcase out of the way and grabbing the door handle. She tried turning it, but it felt like he was holding it closed from the other side.

"Ralph, what are you up too?" She said more amused than anything.

"um… "

That got her attention because while he simply sounded embarrassed before, now he sounded guilty as well.

"Nadine, um… before you come in here… I, ah… can I apologize now, so you won't get mad?" He finally said in a nervous rush, "I _might_ have done something stupid and incredibly rude, but I wasn't thinking clearly right then. I'm sorry Nadine."

She sighed; with all the craziness this morning, trapping her winter-frenzied-sort-of-boyfriend-if-they-could-even-get-to-the-dating-before-they-started-rutting, in her room was probably not the best idea, though she wasn't sure what else she could have done.

The evil little part of her brain from earlier made a suggestion,

 _Oh, you know what else you could have done, remember how big he got at the end there? Wolves seem to have some knotty tricks tigers don't._

If there was a way to murder part of your own mind, Nadine promised herself that she was going to find out how and obliterate that little voice whispering those suggestions.

Muffling and hogtying that part of her mind she focused back on the present.

"Ralph what did you do?" she asked, trying to think of what might have him so worried. She'd left him in a pretty bad state; hell, she'd been almost ready to throw sense out the window and just give into more primal urges, for Ralph right now, it had to be far _far_ worse. Taking a guess at what might have happened, he was a wolf after all and scents affected him more than they did for her, she asked while rolling her eyes, "Did you go through my clothes sniffing them or something?"

In any other case, she'd be pissed but she'd couldn't really bring herself to be mad at him. If she was going to date a wolf, start dating him in the middle of winter of all times, she might have to get used to a few eccentricities. It certainly didn't help either with the situation she'd put him in after riling him up before leaving him in her bedroom, so she was willing to forgive him a slip up or two as he got himself back under control.

Plus, she really didn't have a leg to stand on with how she'd used his shirt last night.

"Sort of?" Ralph said sounding even more guilty.

"Typical," Nadine muttered, getting tired of waiting for him to explain and pushing opened the door.

"Ralph we got to get moving or we're going to be late…" She stopped stunned as his scent hit her _hard_ , far stronger than it should have, and coming from…

" _Did you MARK MY BED?_ " she blurted out flabbergasted before just gaping at Ralph.

"I… ah, sorry?" he said not able to look right at her.

"Is this what I think it is, or is this something normal for wolves when they start dating?" she asked stunned.

"Would it help if I said it was?" he replied and she face palmed.

"Oh my gods, it's the day _before_ were about to start dating and my _not-yet-even-boyfriend_ just claimed _my bed_ as _his territory_." She said in exasperation before frowning at a swishing sound that had started at the word 'boyfriend'. "And stop wagging your tail damnit! How would you like if I went into your house and marked your bed?!"

The swooshing sound quadrupled to industrial fan levels.

"UGHHH!" Nadine threw her hands up in the air in frustration... and the towel around her slipped and fell to the floor.

Ralph looked like she'd just hit him in the face with a two by four and stared at her; more accurately stared straight at her chest.

"Ralph," she started dangerously, "Are you ogling my breasts?"

Looking like all sense had departed him, he nodded his head enthusiastically never taking his gaze off of her chest.

"Un. freaking. believable." she said with a groan before snapping her fingers in front of her chest to get his attention.

"If you ever want a chance at making friends with my two girls." She said menacingly, "You'd better move your eyes up here," she pointed at her face.

Even as his eyes slowly, ever so slowly started to finally move up, Nadine was finding it extremely hard to stay mad while looking at the adorably dopily cute smile of delight on his face. Then, she saw his eyes.

 _Uh-oh, ok I need a distraction now… like Right Now!_ The reasonable part of her mind screamed.

He was looking at her like he had earlier… earlier when he'd accidentally marked her.

Her internal alarms were blaring, much to the delight and muffled laughter of the unruly part of her mind, still hogtied and left in a deep dark corner of her mind. The room was filled with Ralph's scent and mixed among its musky forest flavor she could detect the sharper tones of _male_ and _arousal_ , she could even smell the mix of their scents from their earlier romp.

 _NOW! DO SOMETHING NOW, DAMNIT!_ Her mind screamed at her, panicking again.

Nadine moved on instinct. That same fight or flight from the day before when she'd run. But this time she was in _her_ home, _her_ room and there wasn't anywhere else to flee to.

She moved, or maybe pounced was a better description.

She hit Ralph and he fell back, falling to the floor with her on top of him. She gave one short roar, her muzzle just in front of his and then was kissing him hard.

 _Umm…_ part of her mind bewilderedly thought at the sudden action, _That was not what I meant…_

 _You said do something._ She argued back

 _Yes, but…_

 _It worked, didn't it?_

 _Yes, but what are you going to do now?_

 _Um…_

 _Better think quick because 'bad kitty' is breaking free… oh and he's making friends with the girls._

She suddenly became aware of Ralph's paws. He'd brought them up defensively when she'd pounced and they'd been trapped between their bodies. Now they seemed to be making the best of that position and were caressing her. She shivered as one of his paws moved across her in just the right way.

 _Son of a bi -, oh gods! *shudder* okay, what now, *shudder, moan* Some help here Please?!_

 _Well of course his mother's a wolf, what were you expecting?_

 _Help Now, Smartass comments later! Oh! *Purrrr*_

 _Um… distract him?_

Barely managing to summon the willpower, Nadine broke the kiss and then out of ideas, quickly nipped the side of his neck, causing him to shudder and let out a whine. She took the momentary distraction to snatch his paws away from her girls and trap them against the floor with her larger paws.

That done she looked back down at him, breathing hard. He, looked back up at her nearly panting.

 _D-did I just bite him? Oh shit, shit, Shit!_ She felt herself about ready to freak out but part of her remembered in time that he was a wolf, _Thank the gods I've never told him about the intimate parts of tiger customs_ , he wouldn't know what that kind of thing meant to felines.

Ralph looked up at her still panting slightly. She was straddling him, had him pinned just like she would when they practiced grappling at the academy and precinct.

The position didn't escape Ralph; she could feel a rumble start deep in his chest and he raised his head so that it was almost touching hers.

"Uncle. You win," he said just like he had a hundred times before on the wrestling mats, but this time he didn't stop there.

"You caught me, fair and square, so what are you going to do with me?" he finished in a pleased growl, his rumbling deepening.

"Shut Up!" She said desperately. She wanted to whack that silly happy grin off his face but her paws were busy keeping his at bay, so she hit him with a short jabbing kiss.

His head rocked back at the unexpectedness but he rallied and tried to retaliate with one of his own. She'd been too fast though and had moved her head back blocking it.

His movement left him open though, and she took advantage of it, snapping a short hooking kiss down to the side of his muzzle stunning him. With his defenses weakening, she hit him with a series of quick and brutal straight kisses. She'd thought she'd about won when she realized he'd shifted under her in a classic shrimping grappling move. His leg got out from under where she was straddling him, crossed it over her leg and while pinning the limb, he bucked rolling her over to now sit atop her, straddling her and pinning her paws.

He took quick advantage of her surprise and hit her with a quick series of kisses, a few pecking jabs followed by a straight kiss that slipped by her scrambling defense, then another jabbing peck. She shifting her arm but he blocked the movement and used her distraction to hit her with a devastating uppercut nipping at her under her chin. She desperately tried shifting her other arm, actually got it free but he moved to interlock his arm with hers immobilizing both and hit her with three quick straight kisses one after another rocking her back with each, dazing her. Her defense was broken, she saw him rear up readying a wild haymaker kiss that was sure to be devastating and would probably do her in.

She whipped her tail around, hitting the inside of the elbow of his arm holding her paw. The sudden move caused his arm to collapse, sending his body shifting down to that side and his finishing punch of a kiss to graze her cheek instead of hitting her square on.

His weight was now off balance and the miss had left him over extended, a wide gap in his defense. She took the opening, executing a series of textbook grappling moves. A quick hooking kiss against his overextended neck to keep him stunned, she shifted the position of her interlocked arm pushing up while simultaneously grabbing his collapsed arm with her now free paw and pulled it down. With her larger size, she didn't bother with the shrimping move he'd used but just bucked her hips up as she pushed with one arm and pulled with the other flipping him off her to the side and onto his back. He landed with enough force that a blast of expelled air escaped him in a loud, 'Oouhff'.

There were the noises of a broom banging on her ceiling and some yelling.

 _"You kids were just rutting! Take a break already damnit!"_

 _"Go Kitty Go! Teach that alpha wolf why pussycats rule!"_

 _"Careful with your mate there dear, don't go breaking him!"_

She ignored it all, and got up taking one step over and placing a hind paw on his chest pushing him back down to the ground as he tried to get up.

She looked down at him still recovering his breath. Ralph was a skilled grappler, she had to admit that in pure skill he was better than her, but she was bigger and stronger and that had always lent her just enough advantage in their matches to usually win.

She stared at him, the adrenaline from the morning, the tension, this fight and the kisses he'd landed blazing through her. She smirked down at him and couldn't help but deliver a verbal smack down.

"Give up, wolf. You're in _my_ house now!"

There were some cheers, cat calls, and wolf whistles from the other apartments at that, but Nadine's attention was focused on Ralph because instead of looking defeated he was now grinning back at her.

There was a sudden tug on her tail that made her jump straight up, thumping the ceiling with her head, and she let out a startled yowl as her fur to spike out.

"Got, your tail!" Ralph yelled smugly.

She managed to keep her feet under her as she landed but Ralph was already moving. He kicked out hitting the back of her knee causing it to buckle forward and to fall back on him. He wrapped his legs around her hips and his arms under hers hauling them back and into a lock. She found herself laying face up, her back pressed into Ralph while he held her pinned, unable to move her arms, and this time her tail trapped between them as he pressed up close behind her.

"I thought grabbing a tiger by the tail was a bad thing," Ralph said far too smugly and kissed her neck, then the side of her muzzle, then behind her ear. She shuddered against his flurry of kisses and struggled but his position had countered her greater size and she couldn't break his hold or dislodge him.

Each kiss was sending a jolt through her and she could feel every bit of him pressed up against her back and rear. She'd always been competitive, never liked to lose at anything, but having Ralph pin her like this, having him pressed up against her, kissing her, was causing a reaction she'd never had before to losing a fight. And worst of all she _knew_ Ralph could _smell_ her skyrocketing arousal because he started rumbling happily.

"Uncle!" she called out desperately, trying to hold back the hot rising wave.

"Nope," growled Ralph in her ear, before kissing it, making her moan out loud, "If you want me to stop, then tell me how you feel about me."

"W-What?!" she shouted, though her exclamation was cut a bit short as he kissed her neck again.

"Right after you put me in here you said that you weren't ready to admit that you love me."

She went rigid. "And so what if I did?!" She said defensively, desperately, her ears going flat.

"That implies that you _do_ love me." he said with a throaty growl that made her heart rate spike dangerously.

"I Admit Nothing!" She roared and started desperately squirming.

"That's sounds pretty guilty. If you didn't love me you'd have just said so." he replied in that growly happy voice that was wrecking her resolve and restraint.

Not having any good response to that she blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "A lack of denial is not proof of compliance or admission of guilt. Every mammal has the right to remain silent in addition to the right of legal counsel!" she responded verbatim from the police academy handbook.

She could hear a whooshing sound and was pretty sure his tail was wagging like mad.

"You're not saying you _don't_ love me," he said far too happily now.

She felt his tail brush up against one of her arms he was holding locked back as it wagged. She snatched at it and this time Ralph yelped and his grip on her loosened as she tugged on his tail, which part of her mind noted with glee, was criminally soft and fuzzy unlike hers. That thought was not a productive thought at the moment and she sidelined it for later examination in favor of more immediate concerns, like not letting her wolf beat her in her own room.

"Your Ass is Mine!" she roared, finally twisting free of his loosened grip and rolling off him. She whipped her tail away just in time to prevent him from grabbing it again but managed to snatch his paw that had reached for it. Using the captured paw she dragged him over to her and grabbed his remaining free paw before he managed something tricky with it.

She blocked two quick pecking kisses, but the jabs were a faint and he slipped in to nail her with a straight kiss that connected hard.

While still reeling from the kiss, he'd had after all managed to get some tongue in there to devastating effect, but she managed to get her hind paws under him and before he could hit her with another devastating blow, she kicked out hard, lifting his body clear up and off of her. She used her hold on his arms to direct his short flight up and over her to come crashing down onto her bed, which let out a grating squeak as a spring or two somewhere inside gave way at the impact.

Seeing her chance for victory Nadine gave a battle roar and pounced.

She came down on Ralph before he could get out of the way, pushing him into the mattress and causing it squeak more. She pinned both of his arms, straddling his waist and hit him hard with a straight kiss of her own before he could recover, repaying him for the earlier blow and making the bed squeak again.

Ralph twisted, trying to pull the same move he'd used earlier to get out from under her but this time she was ready for it. she locked his ankle with hers preventing him from getting it under and around her for the leverage he needed to roll her.

He looked up at her, his eyes going a little wide, knowing she had him this time. She hit him with a few jabbing kisses but he fended off most of the pecks until she snuck a hooking kiss around as he'd turned his head and nailed him, rocking his head back with the kiss to continued squeaks of the bed, dazing him.

"You came into _my_ house," she hit him with a few more pecks before slipping a straight kiss through his weakening defense for another devastating blow and more squeaks of the bed.

Nadine pulled back ignoring the noises of her bed and shouts from other apartments.

" _my_ Room, _my_ BED!" dazed from her series of hits, Ralph fell for her first faint and she nailed him with another hard kiss slipping her tongue into his mouth. He tried to squirm and buck out from under her, as their muzzles locked and battled but she had him completely pinned and at her mercy.

She pulled back again and roared, "I rule _here_ wolf!" and hit him with a few more kisses that he could barely offer a defense against.

He bucked desperately trying to get out from under her, but she was having none of it.

"And your ass and tail are mine now!" She wound up and hit him with as hard of a kiss as she could, then did it again, and again and kept kissing him until his desperate struggles finally stopped.

She looked down on her wolf, now too dazed and disoriented from her brutal and relentless series of kisses.

She gave a satisfied huff, "I win, Ralph. You should know better than to try and take me on my home turf." Then just for good measure and because she wanted too, she kissed him again and took her time with it, locking her muzzle with Ralph's and running her tongue against his.

After that final kiss, she got up off the bed which now squeaked at nearly every slight movement.

Ralph stayed where he was looking only half conscious and with the largest dopy smile she'd ever seen on him stretching across his muzzle.

She reached over, picking him up and slung him fireman style across her shoulder.

"I want a rematch," Ralph said trying to shift around, but she prevented it and he didn't have any more fight left in him.

"I won. I get to make the rules now. You are going to get a shower and I'm going to get dressed, then we are going to go tail Wilde and Hopps for the rest of the day. Then tomorrow you're going to take me out on a date, a proper date… and you're going to bring me more of those flowers."

"Date. Flowers. Got it…" he trailed off seeming to happily contemplate that and his tail started wagging.

With him slung over her shoulder his tail was swooshing back and forth right in front of her and the motion was impossible for her to ignore.

swoosh. swoosh. swoosh.

Her eyes were nearly crossing as they tracked the movement of his tail because each time it swooshed across, it brushed up against her nose, both tickling it and filling it with his musky scent.

She didn't notice the low rumbling purr that was starting in her chest.

swoosh. swoosh. swoosh.

She tried batting it away with a paw but it just swooshed back.

swoosh. swoosh. swoosh. swoosh. back and forth, back and forth

swoosh.

She couldn't help herself. The next time it swooshed back in front of her she clamped down on it, not biting hard enough to hurt but certainly enough to trap it.

Ralph gave out a yelp as his tail tried to swoosh back but was stopped by her grip on it, blurting out, "Nadine! Careful! I need that!"

She gave it a slight tug and growled.

"Okay! Okay! I'll try to control it!"

She growled once more, then with her free paw to make sure that his over excited tail didn't get away, moved it under the paw she had over Ralph's legs to hold him in the fireman's carry.

 _You totally just used that chance to feel up his tail._ Part of her mind accused her.

 _Shut up, it's fluffy and I claim it as victory spoils._

She was almost to the bathroom door when Ralph spoke up in that stupidly happy voice, "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

She almost tripped on that, "Ralph save the compliments for the date and- hey!" she jostled him on her shoulder, "Stop eyeing up my tail and ass!"

"But they're gorgeous." He whined and she couldn't help the blush that appeared, she'd never been called gorgeous before. Most tigresses were less muscled and more sleek than she was, but apparently Ralph thought differently because he continued.

"Gods I fell in love with you because of who you are but your so damned pretty too."

She came to a halt right outside of the bathroom and had to admit she was glad that Ralph was looking at her ass and not her face because only one set of those cheeks could blush. Ralph's tail despite his attempts to stop it and being trapped under her arm was trying to wag again, jerking back and forth above his rump.

"Okay, Ralph. If we are going to date, and I mean seriously date, not just fool around then I'm laying down a condition on it," she said trying to control the wild blush on her face, "You are not allowed to use the L word until I use it first. Understood?"

"But Nadine I do lo-" she cut him off.

"Not until I tell you first!"

'But-" he started to whine so she bit his rump hard and growled; it wasn't hard enough to break the skin but was certainly going to leave a mark for a few days.

"OWWW! Okay! Fine, fine, I won't tell you that I Lo-, how I feel until you tell me first." She let up and he reached back and rubbed at the spot where his pants now had a few holes. Nadine's blush was raging out of control as she determinedly tried not thinking about what she'd just done, and thanked the gods that Ralph didn't know what that meant to tigers.

"Yeish, was that necessary?" he asked still rubbing at the spot.

"Yes." Nadine answered and then scrambled to think up an excuse, "That's payback for marking my bed." Close enough to the truth, she thought and then opened the door to the bathroom and put Ralph down, ushered him in.

"Get showered. I'm going to go get dressed and then I'll get your duffle bag with your spare clothes out of the trunk of the cruiser." She said and hurried away before he'd even managed to nod and close the door, still distractedly thinking about what she'd done.

…

One shower later and things between her and Ralph seemed to have calmed down. Though considering they'd been a pair of pants away from having sex this morning and then had what was either a fight or a serious round of foreplay (possibly both) that had left Ralph kissed halfway to unconsciousness, it would have been hard for things to get even crazier.

After getting dressed and retrieving his bag from the cruiser, she'd gone back to the kitchen to get some coffee going as she expected she was going to need it today.

The one good thing, she mused as she sipped her coffee while waited for Ralph to finish, was that her hangover was completely gone.

Ralph came into the kitchen and she offered him mug. He reached out but stopped and seemed to hesitate.

"Oh for Rajah's sake, _I'm_ not a wolf, it doesn't count." She said rolling her eyes.

"Doesn't matter, your not-quite-yet _-boyfriend_ ," he said that with particular relish, _"is_ a wolf."

Then he took the mug with a huge smile and gave her a quick light kiss on her lips before she had a chance to react.

"Thank you for the coffee Nadine," he said and sipped it, grinning then whole time.

 _Okay, giving someone coffee shouldn't make me feel so happy, that's just not normal._

 _But imagine waking up to a kiss and a smile like that every morning,_ part of her mind mussed.

 _Forget that, imagine waking up With him every morning_ , another part said delightedly.

"So, are we ready to convene our little operations planning session? I learned a bit about their supposed schedule as well as some other interesting tid bits.." Ralph said breaking her out of her inner turmoil over a particular fantasy.

"Oh, ah… ya let's get started." She drained her mug and focused her mind off of what cuddling with Ralph might be like and onto the job at hand.

…

"This is sounding more serious than I thought," Nadine said afterwards worriedly.

"Yep, I think you're right that they might need backup. From what I got, it sounds like someone claiming to be associated with the Bigs pulled some strings to make sure that Judy won that prize. It smells like a trap."

"Then why is Bogo having them waltz right into it?" Nadine said frustrated.

Ralph shrugged, "If you know it's a trap sometimes the best thing you can do is spring it. Whatever's going on everyone involved has been closed lipped about it. Best we're going to be able to do is keep a close eye on them until something happens."

Nadine nodded, "Right. Well then, you ready to roll partner?"

Ralph grinned and nodded but then stopped and looked her up and down seeming a little confused at her choice of clothing.

"You are bringing along more than your claws, right?" he said lifting up his casually untucked shirt enough that she could see the tranq pistol and pawcuffs holstered discretely under it.

"Of course," she said crossing her arms, grinning back at him.

He looked at her snuggly comfortable jeans and shirt, seeming more confused, "Um, really? Because while you look amazing, I can't see where you're going to put anything."

Her grin widened and she turned, heading for the front door, "Ralph, I've already got my gear on me. Now, let's get going."

"But _where_?" he said, sounding flummoxed.

Nadine couldn't help the chuckle or the slight flicking of her tail, knowing he was scrutinizing her, trying to figure out where her pistol and cuffs where.

"I'll leave that up to you to figure out. You're a police officer aren't you?" she said as she opened the door and Ralph hurried to catch up to her.

His bewilderment kept her amused until they got to the lobby, and a wave of cheers and congratulations hit them.

"Megan!" Nadine shouted at the small bobcat taking pictures of them. She was sure that the cat was the instigator of this; Friend or not Nadine swore to herself that she was going to find a way to get back at her for today. She was a tiger, she knew how to stalk and wait for the perfect opportunity, and when she struck, she was going to return the embarrassment tenfold.

"Nadine, we just wanted to show our support!" she said smugly, snapping more pictures just as Nadine noticed Ralph had somehow managed to clasp their paws together and scoot up next to her making them look like an overly cliché couple.

" _Ralph_!" She said blushing, and he looked up at her, a huge smile across his muzzle… that disappeared as Mrs. Woolstein came out of the lobby office.

"What's all this racket now?" the old sheep said before her eyes narrowed and her cane coming up to point like a rifle sighting a mark, right at Megan who didn't look nearly as smug as she had a second before.

"Girl, you know the rules, if you want to throw a party for them then you can schedule to use the patio." She sniffed disdainfully and speared the bobcat with a look that promised a full lecture, "And if I ever catch you or any of the other tenets," she glared at the crowd, "making bets again on which one of them is going to come out on top, I'll double your rent. The gall of you youngsters intruding on their private time like that! Why in my day we'd-"

"WHAT?!" Nadine's voice nearly roared in a high squeaky tone as her head swiveled over to Megan, "You did, _WHAT_?!"

Megan tried to shrug off her look nonchalantly but Nadine saw her tuck something suspiciously like a roll of bills, into her pocket, "Oh, you know… I was just supporting us cats," She tried saying like it was nothing, "Mr. Smith said that you should have known what you were getting into, mating with an alpha wolf and all and I told him to stuff it, that a feline is always going to come out on top of a canid. When he got your tail…" she shrugged grinning, "Well... we just put a friendly wager on it."

Nadine was staring at her slack jawed, and Megan's self-assured feline smugness seeming to auto-right itself like a gyroscope. She looked back up at her grinning, "And you sure showed him! 'This is my house!' Ha!" she gave her a thumbs-up before smirking at Ralph, "How does it feel to get your ass owned in bed by a cat, wolf?"

Ralph, blushing now too, though he seemed more amused by Megan's comment than anything, rubbed the back of his pants and muttered, "She's definitely a fine she-wolf, has a hell of a bite too."

Megan looked startled for half a second, staring at where he was rubbing, then at his chagrinned smile and then at Nadine's crimson face before her expression started to shift towards delight.

A feeling of horror started to build in Nadine's stomach seeing that look.

The little bobcat's paws shot to her face as she let out a squeal worthy of Clawhauser.

"Nadine! You didn't! O M G, When are you two-" a cane whacked her on the head cutting off her excitement as she let out a yowling, 'OWW!'. Megan jumped away from the old ewe and dashed for the stairs, but not before the surprisingly swift old sheep managed to swat her good across her rear with the cane.

The 'thwack' sound of the cane as it connected sent Megan nearly flying up the staircase clutching at the spot and yowling the entire way.

Mrs. Woolstien waved the cane at the retreating figure, all the while lecturing her about how she'd better start behaving or she'd give her a proper switching like she deserved."

Ralph looked up at her and asked, "What's the deal with the bite?"

Nadine's face seemed to catch on fire, " _Nothing!"_ she said far too quickly, "Just… just a cat thing and Megan being Megan-"

The crack of Mrs. Woolstien's cane hitting the floor caused both of them to look over at the ewe who'd turned and was heading straight for them, muttering about how Megan needed to stop being a headstrong wild-child and find a mate to settle her down.

Ralph involuntarily clutched at his backside and then there was a small subtly fight between them that ended with Nadine behind Ralph, and him looking at her like she'd just thrown him under a bus.

There came a final _crack_ as the cane came to rest against the floor with Mrs. Woolstien in front of them. Nadine couldn't help but squeeze Ralphs paw as she looked at the terrifying little landlady.

"Now young man, I take it that we won't have to have this morning's discussion again?" she asked and Ralph nodded as fast as he could.

"Yes ma'am, I'm going to take care of her properly, I swear." He said quickly, still nodding.

"Good, now that all of this hullabaloo is over," she glared back at the remaining mammals in the lobby who quickly seemed to realize they were all late for something and went rushing off, "I wanted to talk to you two about the apartment." Nadine tried to speak but the little old sheep ran right over her, not seeming to even notice. "That flat is too small for the both of you. There's a vacancy in the floor above in one of the larger units, granted the ceilings aren't any higher but there's enough space for a new couple starting a family. I'm having it renovated at the moment and I'll make sure that they put some extra insulation in the main bedroom so that you two won't have to deal with over enthusiastic neighbors butting their snouts in where they don't belong." She gave another disdainful sniff at that. "It should be ready by the end of next week so you two can move in then. Now, run along for the day and don't go getting into any trouble, I'll leave the paperwork for the new apartment in your mailbox." She turned away and headed back toward her office.

Nadine was about to protest that they were just starting to date and that they were _not_ about to move in together, but the ' _crack, crack, crack'_ of the cane against the floor as the Mrs. Woolstein walked away stopped her every time she opened her mouth.

The old ewe stopped at the door and turned back to level her gaze on them, "Oh, and what are you two doing about your last names? I need to know for the lease agreement."

"Um…" Ralph looked up at her desperately and whispered, " _What the hell are we supposed to say?!"_

"Ah, we're… ah. Still discussing it. Um… we'll tell you when we figure it out, but we've got to go or we're going to be late!" Nadine finished in a rush.

That answer didn't seem to pass muster with her and she looked like she was about to start in on them and explain just how it was done in the proper good old days. Ralph pulled out his phone and glanced at it, "Oh my gosh, look at the time! Nadine we have to hurry! Sorry Mrs. Woolstein, we really have to go."

The two of them fled toward the front doors, as the ewe called out after them, "I expect you two to figure it out before the apartment is ready!"

They didn't stop till they had escaped the building and we're hiding in the cruiser.

"Sheep are not supposed to be terrifying." Ralph said catching his breath from their sprint, "I thought little old ladies were supposed to be sweet not… not that!"

"She turned to the crotchety side of the force. Hell, she'd even terrify sith lords."

Ralph laughed at that, "I forget how much of a nerd you are sometimes."

"Nerd?! I'm not the one with the collector's edition set of Starwars DVDs." She shot back only to see him grin.

"So, are you moving in with your nerdy boyfriend next week? I can bring that collector's edition for us to watch." he said waggling his eyebrows and she groaned.

"We haven't even started dating, Ralph!" she said slumping back in the seat.

"So, _you're_ going to tell her that we're not moving in? I'll make sure to have an ambulance there and ready for when she fries you with lighting… or just canes you."

"Hell no, I want to live, anyway isn't that the boyfriend's job?" His tail started wagging, " _perspective_ -boyfriend's job." She corrected quickly with another groan.

He gave her a peck on her muzzle, "You can ask your boyfriend for anything, he'd even face the evil crotchety old sheep for you."

"Arghh!", Nadine grabbed her head in exasperation, then with one paw gestured forward groaning, "Just… Just, drive."

* * *

The barista behind the counter looked back over at the nervous bunny sitting at the same table she always did, and hid a smile. The two small ZPD officers _always_ met at that table, the sight had become so common that the staff had declared it the official WildeHopps table and kept it unofficial reserved for the two, not that keeping it clear was hard; all the other regulars knew it was their table as well.

"Think today's gonna be the day?" the Barista's coworker, an antelope, asked from behind the register after finishing with the last customer in line.

"Maybe, this isn't their usual meet up for work and today _is_ Valentine's day." She looked back over at the bunny anxiously glancing toward the door.

"It had better be today, I don't think any of us or the customers can survive the rest of winter watching this every day." He said gesturing at the bunny, who was now fidgeting with her clothes, "You made sure to give her decaf right? She looks like she might be about to pass out from nerves."

"Of course! I'm not an idiot! But if you think this is bad just wait till the fox gets here. He's going to stand outside that window twice as long as he does on a normal morning, stealing glances at her and working up the nerve to come in."

"Three times as long, if her nerves are anything to judge by." The antelope said then stopped, seeming to think hard before leaning back to the Oryx barista and whispering, "You know that one tea pack that's supposed to be a bit of an aphrodisiac?" the barista nodded locking intrigued, "what if we put some of that in his usual order? You know give him a little extra incentive to finally make a move; might even get her to finally realize that he's interested in her if he 'standing at attention' around her."

The barista looked back over at the bunny, now unconsciously stroking her long ears back in a nervous tick, and carefully said, "That would be like adding an extra shot of espresso to his drink 'on the house' right?"

The antelope nodded, "Right. Nothing wrong with giving our best customers an extra free shot… or two."

"Humm… Espressos got a strong flavor, could cover up quite a bit of that tea, better make sure your hoof doesn't slip and dump a whole carton in it."

Some more nodding, "I'll try not to, but you know how clumsy I am. Well, I'd better go get his order ready, he'll be here soon."

The antelope hurried off, just as there was a chime from the bell over the door. The barista saw the bunny's ears jump straight up as she glanced at the door, only for them to drop back down as she didn't see her fox, but only a brown bunny buck enter. She looked back at the table, disappointment clearly showing on her face as she started fiddling with her coffee cup again.

* * *

As Judy sat in the coffee house that she and Nick used as their meeting spot, she couldn't ever remember feeling this nervous, happy, sad and generally conflicted. She was going with Nick on what she could guiltily pretend was a date. The going on a 'date' part with Nick was something from her daydreams (her night time dreams about Nick were not nearly so PG). The part that curbed her happiness though, was that she'd have to act like this was just her going with him as a friend to a couple events, not going out on a date with the mammal her heart was fixed on. Then there was the guilt because Nick already had someone and she felt like she was using the bump in their relationship to steal him away. It didn't matter how much she tried to convince herself that was not what she was doing, didn't matter how many times she'd swore to herself that she wouldn't try to steal him away when he was already in love, it still felt like that was exactly what she was doing. And the fact that she _wanted_ to steal him away, claim him for herself despite what his heart felt made her feel like the worst friend ever.

The bell over the door chimed and she glanced at it hoping to see Nick but only saw some buck. She turned back and reached out for her coffee cup losing herself in her thoughts again.

However much she wanted them to be more, she was still Nick's friend, his best friend. Whatever had happened between him and his sweetheart, it had hurt him; she couldn't help the hope that it might end things between them and that she might have a chance, but she'd seen past his mask, seen the pain there. He must really love that vixen for a rough patch in his relationship to hurt like that. And if nothing else Judy was his friend, she'd always be his friend; If he needed a friend's support and a bit of a distraction on Valentine's day because of relationship issues, she would be there for him. She would make the day as fun as possible for him and she would _not_ try to use it to put a wedge between him and his love. And if she got the chance to pretend, just to herself, just for one day, that he was dating her, that he was in love with her, not some stupid vixen that would never be good enough for her fox, well… it didn't hurt anyone else…

The presence of someone else interrupted her thoughts and she looked up from her coffee to see the buck that had entered a few moments ago standing at her table. He seemed vaguely familiar for some reason. Her mind, though, couldn't help making an automatic comparison between him and her fox and tallying up how just at a glance how her fox already had him beat in every way.

Nick's fur was a stunning russet and cream that she could stare at all day, the buck was a boring brown with dirty white.

Nick was sleek and lithe, and after finishing at the academy, his naturally predator frame had become even more toned. Watching his muscles flex and ripple under his fur when they worked out, especially when he was shirtless, was probably her single greatest guilty pleasure. Images and imaginings of his body pressing against her was one of the staples of her dreams and was a guaranteed way for her to get herself off. The buck, on the other hand, was slightly overweight, not the charmingly cute Clawhauser tubby, just overweight with no muscle to speak of.

Where Nick had a smirking smile with a roguish charm and sometimes displayed a secret hidden pure smile that made her heart race every time she saw it, the buck's smile looked greasy and fake.

Where Nick had a casual friendly demeanor despite some of his more predatory traits (which for some reason just seemed to make him more attractive to her, not less), the buck looked haughty and predatory, not in the physical sense, but in the way a stalker was predatory, the kind of creepy predatory that set off alarms, not sent a thrill through her.

Her gaze moved up and focused on the buck's eyes, beady little brown eyes that seemed to look at her like something he might buy at a market, absolutely nothing like the beautifully emerald green eyes of her fox, eyes that were always warm and jovial with a spark of mischief, but above all else caring.

Despite her effort to appear cheerful, she could feel her face sag as the sight of this buck as it just made her heart long for Nick all that much more.

She was about to speak up, and ask if there was anything he needed, when he pulled a rose out from behind his back and offered it to her with a smile so oily that she wanted to shower just after seeing it.

"I heard that there was a beautiful doe in need of a Valentine today," the buck said trying for a charming voice and utterly failing.

Judy just stared for a second too shocked to respond, but then the voice registered; she'd always had a good ear for voices, even for a bunny.

"Leaps? _Billy_ Leaps? Is that you?" she blurted out confused as to what he was doing here, while she took a second look at him. A lot of does in highschool had thought that he was handsome enough, though that might have been a tad generous and because of his wealthy background. He still had most of the traits that does usually liked though he'd gained weight since highschool, but Judy had never found him very attractive. He was okay she guessed, but his personality had clashed with hers in every possible way. Hell, she'd liked Gideon more than him back then, because as much of a total jerk as Gideon was, Gideon at least didn't try to hide it like Billy Leaps did.

He waved the rose in an obscenely overly romantic fashion, "Oh, She remembers me, Love springs eternal! Not even years apart can stop true love!"

Judy managed to stifle her gag reflex.

 _Gods that was awful, Nick could make that look charming and funny while half asleep, but that... that was terrible._

"Leaps," Judy started but he interrupted her.

"Oh, come now. Old flames don't need to go by last names, Jude" he tried placing the rose in her paw but managed to prick himself on a thorn and dropped it, only to have it land face down in her coffee.

Judy's ear twitched irritably, but she tried to control her reaction. She picked the now coffee stained rose out of her cup and put it on a napkin, sliding it back toward him.

"Leaps, I went on one date with you and walked out ten minutes into the movie when you tried to cop a feel _after_ I'd already told you to knock it off the first time."

He shrugged, giving her a greasy grin that looked like it had turned rancid, not seeming repentant at all, "What can I say Jude, it was young love, and what doe doesn't enjoy the attention of a strong buck?" he finished posturing like he was some demigod and she should swoon at the sight of him.

" _This doe_ doesn't enjoy unsolicited advances," Judy snapped, now not even trying to hide her annoyance, "What are you doing here Leaps?"

"Oh Judes," he started cheerfully and Judy's ear twitched again, "You don't need to be coy. The rumor mill in Bunnyburrow is abuzz with how miserable you've been here. All alone in the big city surrounded by conniving predators, trying to do a job too big for a cute little doe like yourself all because you don't have a buck to support you." Judy's ears didn't twitch in irritation this time because they were pinned back angrily by this point as she tried not to slug the pompous ass in the nose he'd always been so proud of.

He leaned forward, far into her personal space and placed a paw on her thigh, "I'm here Judes, to save you from this awful life. I'm going to sweep you off your feet today like a Valentine dream and show you what you missed out on in highschool. By tonight you'll be crying out my name and dreaming of me."

"Get. Your. Paw. Off. Of. Me." Judy said slowly and clearly to make sure her raging anger didn't make the words unclear, as she balled her shaking fist, about ready to break his paw and probably his nose, despite the trouble it might cause.

* * *

The barista's attention had shifted to the buck that had entered when he'd headed over toward the WildeHopps table rather than head for the counter to order a drink. By the time he had stopped in front of it, quite a few mammals in the shop had noticed and were now watching. Many of them, like the barista, could see the brown buck was holding a rose behind his back and were wonder what the hell he was trying, because he couldn't be stupid enough to think that he had a chance with the bunny. When it looked like he _was_ that stupid, a few phones appeared and where discreetly pointed in their direction to catch the show.

"What the hell is going on?" the antelope whispered coming over to watch next to the barista.

"Shhh!" she waved him to silence, keeping her attention on the buck. By this point nearly the entire coffee house was quiet and watching the scene.

At first, the barista felt a bit of pity for the little bunny buck that was trying to charm Hopps. Besides the fact that he stumbled through his start to woo her, there wasn't a doubt in the oryx's mind that he was doomed to fail; anybody with one eye, let alone a pair, could see the does heart was already given away to someone.

The Barista was so engrossed in watching the scene that she didn't even hear the doorbell chime as it opened.

It looked for a few moments like this might turn into something from a sitcom drama show, with a love triangle when there was a mention of old flames. But that didn't last long, and any pity she'd felt for the buck vanished as it became apparent that he was some lowlife tail chaser.

Then despite all the growing irritation and anger on the does face he jumped straight past possible stalking and straight to sexual harassment. A low angry murmuring broke the silence of the coffee house and the barista found herself reaching for her phone to call the police when she remembered that the bunny was the police.

Her antelope co-worker next to her suddenly let out a low, "Oh, shit." in a worried voice and she shifted her gaze toward the front door where he was looking.

* * *

Instead of removing his paw from her, Leaps's greasy smile grew and his paw started moving up Judy's thigh, "Judes, You know you want me, stop lying to yourself."

She grabbed his paw hard and slammed it down on the table, making him wince, though she restrained herself enough not to break it.

Before she did more though there was a menacing growl that rolled through the coffee house and froze everything.

Judy had become accustomed to predatory sounds after having gone to the academy and living in Zootopia, but she'd never heard a growl like that. The closest was probably when Mr. Manchas had been hit with the Nighthowler serum during the Missing Mammals case, but that had been like a pure outburst of rage and anger. This… this growl had that same level of anger in it along with unfretted menace, but unlike Mr. Manchas's growl, this one had an undeniable focus in a way his hadn't.

The buck's eyes went wide before he looked over toward the source of the growl and Judy couldn't help but look too.

Nick stood by the front door growling, his hackles standing on end. His normally happy bright emerald eyes were narrowed and looked more like the stormy dark green of the ocean in storm, and all of that anger was focused right at the buck still leaning in toward her.

" _She told you to get your paws off her_." he growled out and started forward.

Leaps looked like he might wet himself, so Judy was caught off guard when he managed to sneer back at the approaching fox.

"I'd heard that some pelt was sniffing after her, trying to take advantage of a silly lonely doe." He sneered at Nick, then quivered a bit under the look of fury that crossed Nick's face, but like a true idiot determinedly walking to his own doom, continued on, "Go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under, _fox_ ," he spat, "before I sue you for interrupting me and my girl and leave you penniless on the street like you deserve."

The buck reached out his other paw toward her as if to pull her to his side. That was the last straw for

That was the last straw for Judy, and was about to flatten him, but Nick's larger paw closer around his reaching arm and twisted it up behind his back before spinning him around to slam him muzzle first into the floor.

"She said not to touch her!" Nick said in a dangerous voice, looking like he might tear his arm off as Leaps groaned.

Judy hadn't ever seen Nick lose his cool like this before. His fur was bristling and his claws were all the way out and clearly visible.

It scared her, not because he frightened her but because Judy was worried that Nick might do something he'd regret later, like break Leaps's arm after he'd already subdued the ass… even if he deserved it.

Nick didn't like hurting other mammals, even when it was necessary. It was something she'd learned about him while helping him prepare for the academy's boxing and grappling courses. In hindsight she should have expected it; Nick had been a hustler, he'd always used words to avoid fights, that and she knew despite the hard closed exterior he had, Nick was the kind of mammal that liked to be friends with others, whether predator or prey. It was part of the reason, she was sure, that had driven him to join the ranger scouts as a kid.

If he hurt someone more than necessary in a moment of anger, even if it was justified, it would hurt him, and she couldn't let that happen. Not to him, not to her fox.

She reached out a paw and touched his shoulder, "Nick." She said calmly, reassuringly, "Thanks for taking care of that scumbag," the reaction was almost immediate, the low threatening rumble dying down and his fur settling.

Nick looked back over at her and his menacing expression softened, "I… ah, sorry Judy. I know you could have handled him yourself. I… I just couldn't..."

She smiled back and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "Nick, don't apologize; we're partners, remember? We'll always have each other's backs."

Nick seemed almost to be back to his normal self. He smiled at her and seemed about to speak when his whole body went ridged, convulsing as a crackling sound filled the air.

"Nick!" Judy screamed as he fell forward, only to show leaps with his free arm out holding a hand-taser up to where Nick's back had been.

"Gods damned foxes-" he started to say, trying to get up, but the end of his sentence ended in a shout of pain as Judy disarmed him… and she was pretty sure, broke his wrist, not that she cared. Nor was she particularly careful as she flipped him over, more threw really, and pulled out her pawcuffs she always carried, first cuffing his uninjured paw.

The buck, moaned out in a slightly dazed voice, "Judes? What?... what are you doing?"

In an act of more kindness than she thought he deserved she snapped the other end of the handcuff around his upper arm and not on the broken paw, though she might have been digging her knee into his back more than necessary as she worked.

"Arresting you, for harassment and assault." She said trying to control the snarl in her voice. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to legal counsel, if you cannot afford a lawyer one will be provided." She pulled out her cellphone and dialed the precinct.

"Jude? Have you lost your head?" He said trying to struggle and she dug her knee harder into his back, stopping the movement. "I was saving you from that conniving fox, you should be thanking me."

She had to focus hard to stop herself from breaking something else as she shook with anger and responded not even fully aware of what she was saying, "Thank you?! You came here, interrupted my date, tried to force yourself on me, and then hurt my fox!"

"Judes, you're letting that fox hoodwink you! I read up on the news about you two and heard the gossip about how he'd managed to con you into going out with him today. He's going to try and get you alone and ravish you. I came here to stop that!"

Judy looked down at him incredulously, and let out a short sharp derisive laugh, "What? So you, 'the big strong buck' thought he'd come down here and save the 'pretty little airheaded doe' from 'the big bad fox' and then take her away, where, what? She'd let him have your way with her as thanks?"

"Um… yes?" he said sounding confused as to why she was upset about that.

Judy ratcheted down the paw cuffs tight to make sure he couldn't slip out of them, causing him to squeal out a bit as his broken paw was jostled.

"I wouldn't sleep with you if you were the last male on this planet, you bastard." She said angrily leaving him on the floor to go make sure that Nick was okay. "Nick has never taken advantage of me, hell he's not even interested in me, I could only wish he was because unlike you I'd take him as a mate any day!"

That seemed to shut him up, or maybe it was just that the pain from his broken wrist starting to make itself apparent because rather than reply he just moaned and whimpered.

Nick was groaning and shifting slightly. Judy checked him over quickly to make sure nothing major was wrong and then placed his head in her lap and stroked his head and ears as his eyes blinking and he seemed to start coming back to full consciousness.

It was only then with her anger ebbing, knowing that her fox was going to be alright, that she remembered her phone.

"Officer Hopps? Officer Hopps? Is everything alright? Officer-" came the voice of Delgato who'd drawn front desk duty while Clawhauser was off for the day.

"Sorry, was distracted for a moment there. I need a pick up at the Elm Street Snarlbucks for a case of harassment and assault. Ssuspect is restrained and in custody but has a broken paw."

"Okay, I'll send patrol car 7 over, Francine and McHorn will be there in a few minutes, anyone else hurt?" Delgato asked, and she heard him issuing orders over the police radio net.

"Nick got tasered pretty badly but I think he's going to be alright, he's starting to come around." She stroked the side of his muzzle looking down at him. With the situation and immediate threat over she could feel the adrenalin and anger leaving and all the other thoughts and emotions that had been put aside in the face of the immediate threat came rushing back.

 _What if it hadn't been just a taser?_

She barely heard Delgato say that he was sending an ambulance over just to make sure they were alright and to deal with the injured suspect. She gave some sort answer and ended the call, trying to hold back the emotions that were causing her eyes to water.

 _What if it had been a knife? What if Nick had gotten seriously hurt?_

She leaned down hugged him, putting her face into his neck so that no one would see or hear her as some tears and sobs slipped out.

 _What if I'd lost Nick?_

Judy wasn't quite sure how long she stayed there like that, but Nick's muzzle moving finally pulled her back to the present. In a choked voice and with a hiccup she asked, "Nick?"

He let out a groan before saying tiredly, "My bunny saved me again, didn't she?"

Her heart skipped a beat at his teasing but she didn't care right then. She hugged him all the tighter.

"Air! Carrots, Air! Need to… breath!" Nick wheezed and she let up, pulling her head back enough to see his face, to look down into his emerald eyes and see that he was really alright.

"Thanks Judy," he said, his nose nearly touching hers, "I know I can always count on you to be there for me, even when I'm supposed to be the one helping you."

She could feel a tear run down and drop onto him, before she said sternly, "Don't go getting yourself hurt like that! Who will watch my back if you're not there Nick?!"

Judy felt his paw brush up against her cheek wiping away another tear before it could fall, "If it'll get my overly emotional bunny to smile, I'll promise to try."

She thumped his chest, "Don't try, just do it, you dumb fox!"

She could feel Nick's nose against hers now, as he spoke in that jokingly happy tone that told her everything was alright, "Ah, come now, you know you love your dumb fox."

"Do I know that?" Judy said seeming to lose herself looking into his eyes, her lips almost touching his as she spoke. In that moment, she didn't care about any of the reasons that she couldn't have Nick, she didn't care what he said was just their own personal little joke.

"Yes…" her lips barely brushed against his. He might only say that teasingly, but she meant her answer. In that frozen moment, nothing else mattered, she could feel her heart breaking with the need to tell him, to kiss him, to claim him as hers. She started to close that last fraction of an inch between them.

"Yes, I d-"

"Wilde? Hopps?" came McHorn's booming voice as he rushed into the coffee house slamming open the front doors and causing both their heads to jerk apart and look over at him as the approaching siren of an ambulance could be heard in the distance getting louder.

* * *

A/N

...

Operations Clock: +2 hours

...


	7. Chapter 7 - Fate and Fools

**.**

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

...

Operation Clock: +2 Hours

...

Disclaimer:

If that wasn't enough, then maybe they just need some more pressure.

I take no responsibility for what happens. I'd suggest taking cover.

The Fox and the Bunny MUST Kiss.

* * *

Chapter - 7 - Fate and Fools

Bogo handed the tickets to the attendant at the gate to the Zootopia Pier, the city's longest running amusement park located on a pier at the southern tip of Savanah Central right by the City's Sports Stadium where the concert would be held later.

The attendant, a young pig with acne that looking bored out of his mind, didn't even glance at the Valentine's day festival passes, before scanning them. A printer behind the attendant's window chattered and he handed them the ticket stubs and the two sheets the printer had spit out.

"Have a great time at The Pier, The Place where Zootopia goes to Play," he said mechanically, making the Pier's slogan sound more boring than watching paint dry, "Don't forget to check after the concert to see if your ticket numbers get called in the raffle for the Farris wheel ride at sunset, your numbers are on the stubs." He finished monotonously, before calling out in a dejected voice, "Next."

Bogo's excited wife, Bessy, pulled him along toward the gate for large mammals nearly squealing in excitement.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun! It's been so long since the last time we were here! I love coming to this place, it has so many wonderful memories!" His wife chattered enthusiastically pulling him through the gate and nearly dragging him bodily down the main thoroughfare lined with booths and rides of every kind, "Remember how nervous you were on our first date? You looked like you were about to pass out when I kissed you at the end of the night." She continued and laughed, "It was _so_ sweet."

"I did not!" Bogo said sternly, trying to scowl, though that just made his wife laugh more.

"Sweetie, you were shaking like a leaf!" she chuckled and gave him a peck on the cheek, making the spot feel warm.

"It was cold that night," Bogo said in his defense.

"It was July." She snickered, covering her mouth with her hoof.

"It was unseasonably cold that July," Bogo continued belligerently.

"Well, it was a good thing that my kiss seemed to warm you right up then," she said amusedly and reached up with a hoof and turned his head so she could give his other cheek a peck leaving a warm spot there as well, "In fact they still seem too, why just look at how rosy your cheeks are already!"

Rather than digging himself in deeper into his losing position, he shifted subjects looking at the two sheets with the peelable stickers the attendant had handed them from the printer.

"Um, dear. Shouldn't we put these on?" he asked before realized what was printed on them, and groaned.

His wife let out another laugh and took the two stickers from his hoof, "Oh your absolutely right! I had so much fun picking out what should be on them!"

She peeled off the first large heart shaped sticker with the printed words, "I HEART MY COW" from the paper backing and stuck it dead center in the middle of his shirt, before placing the second heart shaped sticker with, "I Love my Bull's Marshmallow Heart", on her own shirt and then leaned into him.

Bogo grumbled a bit, and crossed his arms covering up the sticker.

"Now, Now, sweetie, we can't have that!" Bess said and took his hoof, wrapping it around her waist. Then hooking her horn with his, she gave it a tug and caused him to lean back into her.

"Now isn't this better?" she said happily laying her head on his shoulder as they walked.

Bogo wasn't going to give that a response, though when his hoof around her tightened a bit, she gave his cheek another small kiss and he could feel her smiling.

Bogo contemplated his life for a little while as they walked like that, with that damned pink heart stuck on his shirt like a searing brand. Was this embarrassing? Yes. Would this destroy his gruff reputation if anyone recognized him? Yes. Would he wear that stupid heart for his wife? Absolutely.

Anyway, if anyone did see him with that heart and said anything about it, he could always rebuild his reputation. A few lectures, some glares, _parking duty._ That would probably do the trick.

His thoughts were interrupted by a bleating call, "G-g-get your Fortune! Glimpse your Future! Madam Pearl see's all in her crystal ball!"

Bogo looked over to see an old nanny goat dressed like a gypsy in one of the booths and waving her hoofs over, yes, an actual crystal ball set on a pillow. He turned his head back with an amused snort that mammals would actually find that kind of cheap trick amusing.

"Ohh! That sounds like fun! Let's go find out what's in our future!" Bess said enthusiastically and dragged him over.

"Bess, you know that is all fake right?" Bogo asked, hoping to get out of this.

"Oh hush you doubter! You don't know that." She said with a smile, before stopping in front of the booth.

"Um, hi, we'd like to get our fortune." She said to the nanny goat pulling Bogo back to her side as he tried to escape.

"Hummm. Humm…. Who do we have here?" the goat waved her hoofs over the crystal ball before continuing, "Two parents sneaking away for a day of fun while the children are away?"

"Oh! Yes, our daughter is off at college!" Bessy turned to Bogo with a delighted smile, "See, that's not fake!"

"Lucky guess," Bogo said trying to frown, though that was hard with his wife's arm around him.

"An unbeliever, eh?" the nannygoat chuckled with an amused bleat, "Don't go assuming you know everything young man! Fate will come back to get you if you do,"

Bogo couldn't restrain his snort at that and replied, "We make our own fate."

The old nanny let out a long laugh which set the jewelry of her gypsy costume jingling and jangling.

"You might swim the river, but a strong current is still going to pull you where it wills!" the fortune teller said before looking away from the crystal ball for the first time and right at him, startling him for a second with her two sharp, crystal blue eyes in her old wrinkled face. Eyes that seemed far too perceptive.

 _She could probably teach Wilde a few tricks about hustling and reading people_ , Bogo couldn't help think.

"You should know better," she continued, smiling at him in a way that was decidedly unnerving, "When you dismiss something out of hand because you think it's ridiculous, those _small_ things will come back to prove you wrong! Dismiss Fate at your own _doom_ , young man."

Bogo could feel himself stiffening defensively. He tried to relax, this was just a street performer after all, but he couldn't hold back a slightly derisive, "Oh really?"

The nannygoat's smile widened, "Do you think that meeting your wife was just a coincidence?"

Bess let out a short excited squeal, before saying happily, "He gave me a parking ticket at my morning coffee stop when I was one minute late! That was fate?"

 _Sure didn't seem like fate when she was yelling at me, angry about that ticket,_ Bogo thought remembering his start at the ZPD.

The nanny goat grinned, "Of course dear, just like the other tickets."

Another squeal, "How did you know there was more than one ticket?" she asked the nanny.

The old goat waved her hoofs dramatically at the crystal ball, "My crystal ball showed me, of course!"

"That was a lucky guess," Bogo said, not buying the act, "It's not hard to guess that if you got one parking ticket outside your favorite morning coffee stop you might get another."

"Then let's see what she sees in our future," Bess said, seeming amused at his skepticism.

The nannygoat smiled wider and turned back to the crystal ball, moving her hoofs around it mysteriously making her jewelry jangle as her arms moved.

"Humm… Lets peek and see what fate has in store for your future. Humm. What do we have here? Shadowy figures… some large and some small… hum… I see hidden eyes watching… you seem to have found yourself involved in something, something _big_ , something with dangerous paths, drastic options… Careful, Careful!" The nanny had adopted a wavering theatrically haunting voice. And despite the vague rubbish she was spewing Bogo had to admit that she put on a decent show, and anyway his wife seemed to be enjoying it, "Careful! Don't assume to take fate into your own hoofs. Careful, or fate might give you than you bargained for! Careful or you'll doom yourself!" She let out a cackling, " _Doomed! Doooomed!_ " before continuing, "Head fate's warning bull! If you are going to survive the coming storm, stay close to the one who has your heart!" The nanny finished with a dramatic flourish.

There we're some applause from mammals, many of them couples, that had stopped to watch the performance. Bess leaned into him to say, "Ohhh! Mysterious! We'd better stick _close_ to each other today don't you think?"

 _Well, she at least put on a decent performance_ , Bogo mused, though he still thought the whole thing was a bit ridiculous, _can't argue with this result though._ Bogo thought with his hoof around his wife's waist, as she leaned in close to him. He had to work hard to repress a snort, thinking back to the overly dramatic performance.

 _Doomed? Really that part had been a little much._

He took out a few bill's and put them in the tip jar with a grudging nod, before getting out of the way of the small line that was forming in front of the booth.

 _Fate? Doom? Really._ He didn't believe in that rubbish. He'd chosen his wife because he loved her, he was going to stick close to her because he wanted too, he was going to get that damned fox and bunny to finally kiss each other so that the furor in the precinct and city about them would finally die down and stop causing him trouble. If there really was fate, then that problem would have solved itself. He'd rather not deal with it all, but it was affecting one of his best teams and the distraction of their little soap opera courtship was pulling the attention of other teams away from their work too. How one single couple, regardless of the species involved, could cause so much trouble he would never know, but not even fate would stop him from fixing that particular problem. It and Cupid had dropped the ball, and he was there now to clean up their mess, so they could just get the hell out of his way because he was going to deal with it… right after he finished making his wife happy.

* * *

Nadine and Ralph didn't talk much as they drove, though that wasn't very unusual. What _had_ been a bit unusual was how unreservedly happy Ralph was. He normally had a good natured attitude, quick to a smile or a joke but serious when the situation needed it. During the winter, particularly this last winter he was normally a bit withdrawn. Now, well now it was like someone had taken his happy knob and turned it up to 11. And frankly, it was annoying her because she wanted to grab that overly happy smiling ball of fur and rub against him and purr like she was some little cub again. That need was itching at her irritatingly, and the fact that she couldn't get rid of it, let alone just scratch it, was even more frustrating.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there was his tail. That had to be the worst. His stupid tail was poking out around his side and laying on the center console where the furry tip kept wagging back and forth in an obscenely cute manner. She couldn't help but watch it as it flicked back and forth, it drew her eyes no matter how much she tried to drag them away.

It was slowly driving her _nutz;_ she wanted to grab it, swat at it, _pounce_ on it. That was her tail, damnit. She'd won it! It was hers by right of combat. It had no right to wag so adorably without her permission!

Nadine was so focused on watching the tip of his tail moving back and forth, she hadn't even noticed her own tail start to curl, the tip snapping side to side occasionally in a predatory fashion.

She continued to watch Ralph's tail wag, feeling like she was ready to pounce on it and teach it a lesson.

Ralph hit the brakes as he came around the corner onto Elm Street, and Nadine's attention was roughly pulled away from her fluffy target as her seat belt dug into her shoulder stopping her body as she was thrown forward.

"What the hell?!" Ralph said a bit shocked, and Nadine looked up to see another police cruiser and an ambulance outside of the Snarlbucks further down the street where Wilde and Hopps were supposed to meet up. Ralph pulled the cruiser into a parking spot across the street where they could get a decent view of the front of the coffee shop.

"You think something already happened to them or is this just a coincidence?" Nadine asked worriedly.

"What, a police cruiser and ambulance just _happen_ to show up somewhere those two where at?" Ralph asked with a snort, "I mean this is _Wilde_ and _Hopps_ right?"

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, that was a stupid question. Give me a second." She reached over to the radio and flipped it on."

"Station 1, this is cruiser 14. We're off duty but just saw the commotion at Elm Street. What's the story? Do they need assistance?"

They waited a second before Delgato's voice came over the radio speaker, "Negative 14. Everything's under control though I heard McHorn was cursing up a storm."

Nadine and Ralph looked at each other more confused now, McHorn _never_ lost his cool, hell, he barely said _anything_ more than he had to, and that was mostly just to grunt an affirmative.

"Um… care to explain that?" Nadine radioed back.

"McHorn had fifty bucks bet on the WildeHopps pool for this afternoon. With all the commotion at the Snarlbucks it looked like those two were about to finally give in while riding the emotional aftershock… then McHorn came charging in and broke things up."

Nadine stared at the radio for a second. Ralph snicker. She tried not to but she couldn't stop herself, she snickered too and then they both were laughing.

It took them a few moments to rein in their laughter before they were able to do anything else.

Ralph was wiping his eyes, still snickering, when he spoke up, "I feel sooo sorry for Nick!" he laughed again, "He just needs to tell her. It's _such_ a relief to not have to try and hide how you feel and know that they lov-mmhphh..." Nadine's paw covered his mouth, muffling what he was saying as she tried to get control of herself.

" _Ralph_!" she tried saying sternly and failed, letting out another short laugh at the McHorn's Snarlbucks snarlup, "What did I say about that word?"

He shot her a guilty smile as she removed her paw, but took it in his before she managed to pull it back.

"Sorry, Nadine." He looked at her in an apologetically happy way that melted her heart, "Would you accept a kiss as apology?"

That didn't take her long to decide.

"Yes. But you'd better remember or next time I won't let you off so easily… and you'd better make this a good kiss or I won't accept your apology."

Still holding her paw, he leaned over and up, tilting his muzzle to the side and kissed her. He started off slow, almost chastely before deepened it. She felt his other paw touch her cheek and surrendered to him letting him guide her head and the kiss as her mouth open in response to his.

…

"Do you accept my apology?" Ralph asked and she realized disheartenedly that the kiss had ended.

"Umm… what was that?" Nadine said trying to think, "Oh apology, yes, yes, that was… adequate. Um, apology accepted?"

"Humm, I'll have to work on my kissing," Ralph said with a smile, "there's this girl I've fallen for that I'm going out with tomorrow and I need to dazzle her so that she'll tell me how she feels. You wouldn't mind helping me practice, would you?" Ralph said slyly with a heated glance.

"You're not cheating on your girlfriend now are you?" She said jokingly, still trying to get her mind to start working properly.

Ralph stopped and looked at her, his face absolutely serious.

"Never, Nadine. There's only one girl for me, and nobody else is ever going to pull me away from her."

She looked over at his golden eyes staring at her and could see just how much he meant that. Part of Nadine was still getting used to the idea that _Ralph_ liked her, wanted to go out with her, might Lo- well... getting used to the idea of dating Ralph. That look though held no doubt about how he felt and how serious he was about her... it terrified the part of her that was just getting used to the idea of going out with Ralph... it also made her heart go out of control and before she realized it, she'd pounced.

Only to be brought up short with a 'Ougff' a fraction of a second later as the seat belt locked, stopping her in her tracks before she moved more than a foot toward Ralph and attempt to kiss him unconscious again.

"Nadine?" Ralph said a bit concerned as she slumped back into the seat and the belt ratchet down pulling in the slack.

"Thank Rajah for car safety systems," Nadine muttered, resetting the seat belt, glad that the jolt had done a decent job of knock the overly emotional completely unrational silliness out of her.

She looked over at Ralph, blushed, and looked away needing a distraction from her swirling thoughts about her wolf. Nadine's eyes searching for something, _anything_ , besides _him_ to focus on and finally landed on the radio, and fixed.

She picked up the receiver again and after clearing her throat, toggled it.

"Delgato," she said trying to focus, and not think back on Ralph's serious look or his amazing kissing ability, "McHorn's heavy-footed blundering aside, what happened?"

"Apparently, a bigoted lecherous jealous ex. If you want to see what happened Zoogle #WildeHoppsShipWrecker. There's already a few videos of the incident starting to circulate on MuzzleBook."

Before Nadine could thank him and end the radio call, Delgato continued, his voice shifting from amused to flirtatious, "Hey Fangmeyer, if you still don't have plans for tonight, how about going out with the handsome king of the duty desk for a night on the town?"

Nadine, couldn't hold back the snort as she toggled the radio again.

"Delgato, did you just do that movie mane flick of yours?"

"Oh, sorry, forgot you can't see this Lion's handsome mane right now, well its good practice anyway. So what do you say, up for some fun?"

"Hummm... I don't know," Nadine said as if trying to decide, " _King_ of the duty desk did you say? Well, Clawhauser _is_ cute but he's not my type, plus he's busy tonight so I can't even go drinking with him."

There was a groan from the radio and Ralph who'd gone stiff while listening, let out a laugh.

 _Oh my gods, was Ralph just getting protective? Ralph?! He knows how Delgato always acts._ Nadine thought, only now noticing how his rasied hackles were settling.

 _Then again..._ Another part of her responded, He _did mark your bed… and you._

 _Zip it. That's classified. Nobody can know about that yet._

Delgato's voice came back over the radio, " _Seriously_? Not Clawhauser, I mean _me_ , the precincts handsome devil, Lion extraordinaire, and King of whatever job or slave-driving Chief makes me do! _That_ king of the duty desk!" he said in a comically exasperated voice.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so?" Nadine said, smirking, "In that case, not a chance."

" _Why not?_ " pleaded Delgato like he was ready to get on his knees.

"First, because I've rejected your previous hundred and fifty-two attempts to ask me out-" she said.

"Hundred and fifty-one," Delgato said cross talking over the radio line, "I've counted."

Ralph cut in, seeming to have recovered from his brief surge of newfound protectiveness, "Delgato, you keep forgetting the time we all went out drinking and you asked Clawhauser, thinking he was Nadine… You swept him around and asked him out and then gave him a whopper of a kiss," Ralph was smirking fully, "R _remember_? Claws said that he usually doesn't swing that way, but he might make an exception for you after that kiss."

There was a groan over the radio, " _That_ , was just Clawhauser helping me practice my lines! It certainly doesn't count!"

Another cruiser cut in on the radio line and Grizzole spoke up, "Then why did you bring Clawhauser a box apology donuts the next morning when you let him down?"

"Those were _Thank you_ donuts for him helping me practice my pick-up lines!" Delgado defended indignantly.

"Sure they were," Grizzole continued, "That's why the donuts were frosted with cheetah spot colored icing."

"You all have no sense of style." Delgato muttered.

"Second," Nadine said back, enjoying the bit of normal banter and the break from confusing thoughts about Ralph, "you were talking all week about the twin lionesses your hitting the town with tonight."

"Hey, that doesn't mean we all can't have a good time! I know that they wouldn't mind a fourth." Delgado replied.

"Then send Clawhauser another box of those cheetah frosted donuts, I'm sure with that and a promise of a kiss, he'd be happy to join you for a night on the town." Nadine said smugly, "besides, I'm already taken, _I've_ already got a date,"

 _Um… girl,_ part of her mind informed her, _you just said that last bit out loud._

"Shit!" she looked at the radio hoping that she wasn't still holding down the transmit button.

She was.

Nadine quickly released it... then hit it again and quickly tried backpedaling, "I mean… that I'm busy tonight! I have an errand to do! Won't be able to meet up with you-"

'Nadine!" Came a Delgato's delighted voice.

 _No, no, no, please just stop right there._

"Who are you going out with? Hold on Clawhauser, isn't here, let me text him, he's going to be **_so_** jealous I heard this first." She could hear the tapping over the radio and groaned as Delgato continued to gush, "Fangmeyer, Precinct one's badass, has finally fallen for someone, and judging by that little slip up and how your trying to cover for it, you've got it _bad_! Oh, wait, Clawhauser wants me to tell you something for him," He cleared his throat then in his best imitation Clawhauser voice said, " _OH M GOOOOOOODDDNNEEESSSS!_ " Nadine heard a rhythmic thumping and looked over to see the broad smile on Ralph's face and his tail pounding on the center console.

" _This Isn't Funny_!" she hissed at him.

"Clawhauser also wants to know who finally stole Mrs. Badass's heart," Delgato continued excitedly, before shifting his voice to sound theatrically dejected, "Too bad, and here I was hoping to break my record and get an even 200 rejections, but I guess it's just not to be!"

Rhinowitz's voice broke into the chatter, "Nadine! Congratulations! Who is it, is it someone we know?"

"Sasha!" Nadine tried to say, but the radio line was starting to become jumbled with everyone cross talking.

"Oh, don't be so shy Nadine, you've had a few fun nights out with us girls, but you've never considered actually dating any of those cats we met at the bar. Ohhh, just wait till Francine hears about this! Come on girl, _give_!"

This was quickly turning into a nightmare so Nadine did the only responsible thing she could think of.

"SSHHH – Can't – SHHHHH… Hear.. SHHHHTTT Breaking SHH up." Nadine slammed the receiver down and shut the unit off.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Sooo, who's this you're going out with tonight? It sounds like you might _really_ like him." Ralph said, tail still thumping away madly.

"Oh, shut up!" she growled.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

She snatched his tail to stop it's wagging and snarled at him, which seemed to only make him happier.

"Get out your phone and find that video Delgato was talking about." she growled, trying hard to stay angry and not let that happy infectious smile mollify her. Ralph glanced at his tail now captive in her paw with its tip lying in her lap. He tried unsuccessfully to hide a grin and complied.

Ralph glanced at his tail now captive in her paw with its tip lying in her lap and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a grin and complied.

Nadine huffed, she was just holding the stupid fluffy thing to stop it from making so much noise. She was _Not_ playing with it… or stroking it. She would not, no matter _how_ fluffy it was. In fact, she decided, she'd better keep both paws on it, lest it get away and start thumping again. That was the safe thing to do after all, the smart thing to do, that fluffy tail was a danger wagging around unrestrained like that.

After some tapping on his phone, Ralph found the video and started to hold the phone out over the center console but then looked at the awkward viewing position and at his tail, the tip still in her lap covered now by both her paws.

"Here, this might be more comfortable," Ralph grinned. He shut the cruiser's engine off, reaching over to unbuckle his and then her seatbelt and then slid over the center console to sit next to her. His whole tail thumped once on her lap and her paws automatically snatched back onto it.

 _Can't have it thumping away now_ , she justified adamantly to herself.

It was a tight squeeze in the seat with both of them, but after some minor shifting around she found a pleasant enough position as Ralph held out his phone in front of them. And if her tail was wrapped around him, that was just because of the tight space.

The video he'd found was labeled, 'Epic Klutz!'

It was taken from a phone propped up on a coffee table, judging by its viewing angle and the edge of the table in view.

A brown bunny buck approaching Hopps who was sitting at another table while she fiddled with her coffee cup and shot nervously excited glances toward the door. A rose the buck was holding behind his back was clearly visible from the view of the camera.

At first it looked like the buck was the klutz from how he botched the pickup, particularly with plopping the rose in her coffee, but it quickly became apparent that he was far more of an ass than a klutz, and calling him Judy's ex was being extremely generous.

They watched as the situation became downright hostile after Nick entered and Nadine winced when the buck reached into his pocket with his free hand and brought the taser up to the fox's back. That particular brand of self-defense tasers was made by a company called FoxAway that was currently in the middle of a number of lawsuits ranging from speciestism, to claims of them dangerously overpowering their hand tasers. Nadine nodded her head approvingly when Judy fluidly disarmed the buck. She moved in a flash with quick controlled motions. The bunny had trained hard and it showed; She and Nadine had gone a few rounds together in the precincts ring and had found themselves nearly evenly matched. For the bunny, it was all about if the other mammal could catch her. When Nadine could get ahold of Judy that was usually the end of the match, but that bunny was _fast_ and she had one hell of a kick too.

As they watched, Nadine didn't even realize that she'd started stroking Ralph's tail, or how he lightly rumbled in response. She was too engrossed in watching the worried bunny cradling her partner as he slowly came to.

It looked like the incident might have finally been the tipping point for the precinct's couple that didn't realize they were a couple. The videos minor jitters and the background noise of the café had vanished. It was so quiet that the phone had easily picked up Nick's statement, a running joke between the partners that they said so often, it made every other officer want to shake them and lock them in a holding cell till they just got on with it.

'-you know you love your dumb fox.'

Nick was on his back his head and shoulders in Judy's lap, looking up at her. She'd stopped crying into the crook of his neck and looking right at him, her nose just barely touching his. If it hadn't been for the lack of romantic background music, it would have been something straight out of a movie. A cheesy overly romantic chick flick movie, the exact type of movie part of Nadine's minds was deviously planning to drag Ralph too. That was one of the vital tests of a real boyfriend after all; would he be willing to let go of their masculine pride and go see such a ' _girly'_ movie with her?

"Yes…" Judy said in the video, "Yes, I d-"

And then McHorn barged through the front doors, and with a shake of the camera, a collective groan could be heard from what seemed like every patron in the shop. There were mutters and curses, and quite cries and lamentations of, "WHY?!", "Godsdamnit!", "Son of a B-", and "Sooo _Close_ ".

Watching it both Nadine and Ralph groaned as well, the fox and bunny's heads popped up and around to stare at the rhino like they'd just been awoken from a dream.

McHorn's usually emotionless face on the other hand, had a growing look of horror, and he brought both hands up in a 'I didn't just walk in on you two' gesture, before waving at them, and saying in an almost desperate voice "Sorry, Didn't mean to interrupt. Continue, continue…"

The two small officers looked at each other in confusion before looking back at McHorn, who now looked ready to go over and beat his head against the wall, though that probably wouldn't have done anything besides demolish the wall.

Nick turned his head away from away from Judy right as she glanced down at him, his ears angling back and away from her. From the perspective of the camera taking the video the inside of his ears had gone bright red, though Judy wouldn't have been able to see it looking down at him. Her own longer blushing ears dropped, and she turned to look away just as the fox stole a glance at her, only to see a gloomy expression right before she hid it.

There was another universal groan from the audience in the shop as the two awkwardly got up and avoiding looking at each other.

"Wow," Ralph said, staring at the video, "I don't think the timing of any of that could possibly have been worse."

Nadine nodded her head. Those two made her and Ralph seem like a perfectly ordinary couple. Though something was nagging her about the video. Something she'd seen seemed out of place…

 _So… you're a couple now?_ A voice in Nadine's mind noted as she tried to figure out what about the video was bugging her

 _Wait, what?!_

 _You just called yourself and Ralph a_ _ **couple.**_ The part of her mind reminded her, sounding gleeful.

 ** _Possible_** _couple, we're a 'possible' couple, we'll find out tomorrow whether we can actualy be a couple._

 _Sure. Keep telling yourself that_. It replied in a tone that now sounded almost like Megan.

 _SHUT UP! I'm trying to think!_

How or why part of her mind seemed to have decided to emulate that little bobcat, she didn't know. What she did know was that she was going to blame Megan now for all those distracting thoughts. That might be unreasonable, but not a lot of what she'd been feeling for the last day was strictly reasonable and it was confusing the hell out of her. Ralph was the one going through mating season not her; She hadn't even been very interested in dating since the Academy, so she had no idea where the sudden flood of uncontrollable feelings for her partner had come from.

He was funny but still serious about his work, he was caring and had a huge heart, he was someone she could always count on, but Ralph had always been so closed off when it came to relationships, not just with her but with everyone. She'd never imagined they'd actually go out because he'd been like a closed door. He'd never let anything show until he thought that she'd been about to jump him yesterday and slipped up. That though, had been like the flood gates opening up and she'd hadn't just glimpsed that hidden portion of guarded feelings, she had a full, very clear view.

But why was _she_ feeling this way? Sure, she trusted him with her life, she worked better with him than anyone else, he was her friend and she liked him since they'd met at the Academy…

Nadine froze as she had a moment of perfect introspection amid the tumbling roiling confused mess of her feelings and thoughts, a single frozen moment amidst that tempest, like a bolt of lightning that lit up a storming night and she could see, just for a fraction of a second, the sharp outlines of everything, before the whirling confusion covered it back up.

 _Fuck._ Nadine thought eloquently as she tried to review every memory of her and Ralph all at once, trying to disprove the niggling answer she'd glimpsed now hiding in the recesses of her mind, an answer in that moment of almost understanding had scared her. She wanted to grab Ralph and never let him go, she wanted to flee from him as fast as possible, she wanted… she didn't know what she wanted…

 _Yes you do._

 _SHUT UP!_

That little voice in the back of her head had just gone from annoying to terrifying.

"Nadine? Nadine. Ow, Nadine!"

Nadine nearly jumped through the roof of the cruiser as Ralph's voice right next to her finally registered.

"Ow. Oww. Ow. Nadine, TAIL, Ow."

Nadine realized that she was clutching at his tail like a lifeline and quickly released it.

" _Sorry_ … sorry, I… ah…" Nadine started to say before finding she didn't know what to say.

"You alright Nadine?" Ralph asked leaning into her with a confused expression. He was so close that Nadine could hear his nose working. "Your scent sort of went haywire there for a few moments when you stopped petting my tail and started clutching at it."

"Um... sorry," Nadine said in a small voice, shuffling her paws.

Ralph smiled, his tail thumping back into her lap, "Nadine, _you_ can pet my tail _anytime_ you want," his eyes seemed to almost go unfocused for a second as he grinned dopily, "That felt amazing…" his tail started thumped again, and she had to put a paw on it before it became a safety hazard. Ralph shivered at the contact and then sighed, leaning into her side with a happy heart-melting rumble.

"Yep… you can do that anytime you want…" he sighed again, and Nadine could feel her fur shift as he breathed in through his nose, right before he gave a sneeze.

"Ugh, _way_ too much deodorant," Ralph said his nose wrinkling and sneezed again, "What's up with that anyway? I like the way you normally smell, its nice."

Nadine's face suddenly felt like it had just turned into the surface of the sun. She looked at her wolf who was trying hard not to sneeze again, and the temperature in the cruiser seemed to skyrocket even more.

Luckily she was saved from having to answer because Ralph continued after forestalling his another sneeze.

"But what happened? You sort of froze and your scent spike and was all jumbled. Thought it was just the deodorant at first messing with it but then you started holding onto my tail with a death grip."

He was looking at her with such caring concern that it was making her heart beat erratically.

Nadine groaned and clutched his tail to her tightly (but not too tight), "I… I got lost in my thoughts Ralph… I…" she looked at him and her heart skipped a few more beats. She leaned over and gave him a quick apologetic kiss, before hiding her face and muttering, "Sorry about that."

Ralph looked like he wanted to ask for more of an explanation but instead just smiled and asked, "Better now?"

She ran her fingers through his tail before reaching over to grab his paw.

With a deep breath and a moment of just holding onto his paw, Nadine managed to calm her racing heartbeat.

"Ya… thanks." She said still not looking at him, "Can, can we take a second look at that video, something about it seemed… I don't know… familiar? Off? Something."

Ralph squeezed her paw back and with a quick, comforting, "Sure."

He raised the phone back up and started replying the video.

This time, Nadine didn't focus on Hopps and Wilde but just watched and let her mind wander a bit as she considered the warm paw in hers. It was only then as she was thinking about that and not concentrating on Wilde and Hopps that she saw it.

She reached out and tapped the video stopping it and pointed at the corner of the screen where two polar bears were sitting at a corner table and not particularly enjoying their coffee.

"Them." Nadine said, "look how they're watching Hopps and that buck."

"I'm not one to jump to conclusions," Ralph said squinting a bit as he took a closer look, "But those look an awful lot like the kind of polar bears that Mr. Big usually employs."

"yep," Nadine said frowning, before tapping the screen to continue the video.

Her suspicious ratcheted up a few notches when during the fiasco with the buck; one of the polar bears reached into his jacket with a paw, as if reaching for a weapon, only to freeze when Nick growled. Nadine and Ralph watched the entire clip again after that, only growing more concerned. The two bears didn't do anything, but their behavior was suspicious, particularly how they hurriedly left right after the arrival of McHorn.

Ralph looked at Nadine looking serious, his smile gone, "Think we should report that up to higher?" he asked.

"I don't think so," Nadine said shaking her head, "That was suspicious but we can't prove anything with it. And, if higher is keeping this whole thing quiet because they're afraid of a leak, we could put them in more danger."

"Your right," Ralph said and Nadine felt him give her paw another squeeze, "We'll just tag along and make sure nothing happens to them then," he smiled up at her and Nadine couldn't resist the impulse to lean over and touch her nose to his.

"Damn straight, we'll make sure nothing happens to our friends."

Ralph's grin seemed to split his face. He stole a quick kiss making her blush and replied, "Absolutely. What if today is finally the day they figure out what they have together? We can't let anyone get in the way of that either, that would be a _tragedy_."

Their proximity, position, the taste of Ralph's lips and _especially_ the way he was looking at her, all happy puppy like, was doing all sorts of strange unexpected things to her insides and Nadine had to look away before she blurted out something criminally stupid, like a confession. She could feel her tail snuggling around him more, but couldn't stop it. She was trying to battle the forest fire on her face and losing, when it finally registers what she was seeing out of the tinted window.

"Shit! Ralph! Hopps and Wilde just left the coffee shop. Their getting in that cab!"

Ralph's head snapped over to the window, his face snapping back to its serious expression before he scrambled over to the driver's seat.

There was a slight pang in Nadine's chest as his warmth left her side and his paw and tail slipped out of her grasp. But those feelings were sidelined as she buckled back up and Ralph started the cruiser. She reached over and snapped his seat buckle in as he slammed the vehicle into drive and pulled out to catch up to the cab that had almost disappeared down the road. Ralph wasn't going anywhere in her life and she would have time to figure out what this was between them, but for right now they had a job to do; they'd been partners for nearly three years and it showed. No matter the situation, together they could deal with it, they could count on each other and anticipate each other's moves, and right now they needed to focus on keeping the ZPD's two rising stars and their friends safe.

* * *

Nick, for a few moments, hadn't been sure if he'd died and gone to some sort of heaven because when he'd awoken, there'd been a gray furred angel holding him, an angle that could also apparently hug like a bear. His body still ached and his head was a bit fuzzy, but if this was some sort of dream he didn't want it to end. The only problem with it was that his guardian angel had been crying. It made his heart sheer in two, part of him feeling like he was dying and part wanting to rage and tear apart whoever had made her cry.

He wanted to see her smile, he wanted to tell her how he felt, but he was scared, scared of losing her, scared of losing the most importing thing to him in all the world, so he did what he always did. He hid all that aching love and desire behind a smile and a joke, something he'd said what seemed like a thousand times, something that always made her smile.

And for a brief fluttering moment he was sure that this was just another dream because as she responded, saying those few words that always made his heart want to melt, he'd imagined that he could _almost_ feel her lips against his, like the touch of a feather, about to kiss him.

His mind, his body, his heart was breaking, crying out for her, and in that instant, that dream like instant, he couldn't hold himself back. He needed to kiss her, _had_ to kiss her or he might just die right there on the spot, looking at her.

And then the dream shattered with a crash, shout and the wailing of sirens.

…

Now Nick sat next to Judy on the table as she gave Francine a full report of what had happened. The ambulance medics had checked him over, and after far too long and his vehement protest that he was fine, they finally released him and he went over to guard Judy.

She didn't need it, hell, she had saved him… again, but the drive to protect her was too strong and would not be denied. She might not be his mate, would never be his mate, but he knew that his heart was already lost to her. There would never be anyone else for him, and he didn't think he could survive going on in life if something happened to her, so regardless of how stupid it was he would stay by her side and try to keep her safe.

Nick had to resist the urge to wrap his arm around her. He usually didn't have any issue with hiding his feelings or stopping those urges, but this winter had been hell on him. He'd never had to go through a mating season before with more than a casual interest in some vixen, and it hadn't prepared him for what he had to fight against every day now. It was like going through a morning mist and thinking he was prepared for a storm, only to find he was in a ragging hurricane. When he was near her it was a constant fight not to touch her, to hold her paw to glare at anyone else that came near her, but being away was worse.

He'd come to terms with the fact that she would never see him as a potential mate, the idea was simply ludicrous, even to him; a bunny falling in love with a fox? Ha, He'd believe that it would rain cats and dogs first. There was more of a chance for a freak blizzard in hell or that Buffalo Butt would go around wearing a sign that proclaimed himself to be a big softie. Hell, _he'd_ never have fallen for a _bunny_ if it hadn't been for the fact that Judy was so special. He'd never had even a passing interest in does before and still didn't, not that he was interested in vixens anymore either; now there was only one mammal, and there was not another in all of Zootopia, in all of the world that could compare to her, that could be as kind, caring, and enjoyable to be around. She'd stolen his heart right out from under his nose without even meaning to. But unlike her, he was nothing special, just a reformed ex-hustler, just a fox. It was a miracle that Judy was even his friend, what with the way they'd started out.

And he knew that his odd behavior was worrying her, he'd caught some of her worried and gloomy glances, like the one right after McHorn had arrived. So he resolved once again to get control of himself before he did something stupid and lost her. Judy wasn't interested in him that way and she was his friend, his best friend. She'd been a better friend than he deserved and he would _not_ lose that. He _could_ notlose her.

Nick was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice when his tail had snuck about to wrap itself casually around Judy, hadn't noticed when she'd absent mindedly placed a possessive paw on it without any realization that her own limb had moved. And neither of them picked up on the shift in Francine's large face as she watched them while listening to Judy, though it was clear to everyone else the elephant seamed ready to knock their heads together out of exasperation.

It seemed to take forever for the situation with the buck to be resolved. But finally, the two other officers had collected all the statements they needed, taken possession of the buck after the med techs finished with his paw and returned Judy her specialized small handcuffs after McHorn had swapped them out for a regular pair and taken the buck away to their cruiser.

"Nick," Judy said, sounding far less chipper than her usual self as they got up, "I'm sorry you got dragged into my personal problems. You got hurt because of it. I'll understand if you don't feel up to coming with me today after all of that and just want to go home and rest. I know you're probably still upset over your gir-"

Nick could feel himself bristle a bit.

 _Go home only to sit around my empty apartment and think about Judy? Not a chance. I want to see her happy and smiling._

Nick stopped her by placing his paw on her head and tussling her fur, to predictable results.

"Ahh! Nick! Stop that, you're messing up my fur!" she squealed as she swatted his paw away and punched him in the side.

He grunted though it didn't really hurt, she always pulled her jabs when they were fooling around; he knew because she didn't pull them when they trained and those punches _hurt_. But even if it had hurt, it would have been worth it because he'd gotten the result he wanted. Even as Judy grumbled and smoothed over her ruffled fur he could see a tick of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily Carrots. I apparently need to stay close to you for my own protection. What would happen if I get attacked by another buck or something scary like a mouse? I'd be in serious trouble without you around to save me."

The corner of her mouth ticked up again, smiling just a tiny bit more, as she muttered, "I'll bet."

"Anyway," he said, bumping her hip like she loved to do to him, "It's always more fun to go out with your friends, than to stay home by yourself. You promised me a whole day of fun if I went with you to this silly little concert and you're not getting out of that deal so easily." He walked past her heading for the counter. "Hop to slowpoke, why don't you figure out how we're getting there while I grab my coffee."

Nick had just started to pull out his wallet as he approached the counter to order, when the barista slid his drink, already made, over to him and waved his wallet away.

"On the house, officer. Nobody should have attacked you in our shop. Hope the rest of your day goes better."

"That wasn't your fault," Nick tried saying but the antelope smiled and ignored his offered card turning back to working on another drink.

Something bumped Nick's hip, "Hop to _slowpoke_. Our zuber is going to be here in a minute." Judy said passing him and hopping up to snatch the drink, "And I'll take this if you don't want it."

Nick let out a startled, "Hey!" and reached for his coffee, but Judy deftly dodged him and sipped from his coffee before skipping toward the door smirking.

"Carrots! That's _my_ drink!" He called out and rushed off after her, though he could feel a small smile returning to his own muzzle.

* * *

The Oryx had swapped out positions with her co-worker and watched as he gave Wilde his 'on the house' special drink. Her smirk though, turned to a look of panic when she saw the bunny steal his drink and start sipping at it. Her coworker shot her a nervous glance, but she had no idea what to tell him.

"Carrots! Give that back! I _need_ my coffee!" the fox called chasing after the bunny, who took another longer sip before moving the cup out of his reach again as he grabbed for it.

"Umm, I should have stolen your coffee before now," She said taking another long sip and smirking at him, "This is far better than I thought it would be, I think I'll just keep it for myself."

" _Carrooots_!" Wilde pleaded as she took another gulp, before he finally managed to reclaim the cup and downed the remainder in one long drink, as if worried that she'd steal more if he didn't. "Of course, it's good," he said tossing the cup in the trash and giving her a glare, though that didn't stop him from opening the door for her, "I'm a coffee aficionado, a coffee _expert_. You should have started listing to my coffee advice long ago, then you wouldn't have to steal half my drink to find out which ones are the best." He finished with an indigent aristocratically snooty sniff, as he followed her out the door.

The Oryx turned to her coworker.

" _Please_ tell me you didn't dump the entire canister of herbal tea in that drink." She whispered in a near plea.

"Look my hoof really _did_ slip," he said defensively, "and they seemed to enjoy it, there's nothing we can do about it now anyway."

"She's like _maybe_ half his weight! And that was a large cup even for a _fox_. Expresso and Energizing Herbal Tea?" She said worriedly.

"As I said, nothing we can do about it now." He shrugged though he still looked a tad bit worried too, "Hey, maybe it'll do some good."

* * *

The badger hurried through the busy office that never stopped working, and knocked on a door with a glass window stenciled with his supervisor's name.

"What now?" came an irritated growl and the badger opened the door, shuffled through and shut it, all the while trying to catch his breath.

"Ted, what are you bugging me about this time. You'd have better found a story better than some rumored government conspiracy. That kind of junk would get us laughed at and kill our ratings." The panther said pointedly, "Either tell me you have something _actually_ newsworthy or go back and _find_ me something newsworthy!"

"Check… email…" the badger wheezed, pointing at her computer and couldn't help thinking he needed to start on some sort of exercise program, because sitting at a desk all day was not apparently keeping him in shape.

His supervisor looked over to her computer with a frown, and spent a moment clicking away before her frown deepened.

"What's this junk? Some MuzzleBook video?" she said, not sounding impressed.

"Just… watch… it." he said and flopped down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. The panther did, her frown going from 'I'm about to toss you out on your ass' level of irritation to an ambiguities 'I've seen better".

She scratched her muzzle still not seeming very impressed with it.

"Sure, it's Valentine's day but we already have some loveydovey filler muck to throw in, we don't need another couple story. It's got a little flare with that bit with the buck getting arrested and the doe holding the fox, but that might be too dark for a Valetine's day lovebird story. I'm not seeing why you think it's so special."

"Ma'am," the badger started, "That's not just anyone, that's Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, the ZPD officers that worked the Missing Mammals and Nighthowler cases."

"The ZPD's poster-mammals? The ones that they've been promoting as an example of interspecies teamwork and cooperation?" she asked seeming mildly more interested.

"Yep," the badge said, now more confident, "That video has started going viral on the web, its views are skyrocketing, that's what got my attention. But I did some quick digging, called in to a few sources. Those two have apparently been sort of tiptoeing around a relationship, the rumor at the ZPD is that they haven't done anything yet but are on the verge of official going out together, though some believe that they already are and are just keeping it secret because they're an interspecies couple."

"Humm, 'ZPD's Secret Couple', 'Budding Love or Hidden Scandal'," the panther said moving her paws as if trying to imagine which headline might be the best, "That might get some interest. Fits with Valentine's day and has a bit of intrigue to it. But what about the interspecies side, there's still a lot of tension out there from last year. If this doesn't play out right between them, then it could back fire."

The badger shook his head, "All my sources say that they're completely ears over tail in love with each other. I don't think it'll backfire. This could be _exactly_ the story we need to hammer away at that linger distrust; A bunny and a fox, two natural enemies, not _only_ coming to work together for the city's good, but then falling in love? That's like something right out of a fairy tale. Mammals will eat it up!" he leaned forward in his chair, "I heard that they are going to the Valentine's day festival, _together._ The mayors been trying to push interspecies cooperation and stomp out any remaining feelings of distrust, and here we have the perfect interspecies couple, and one that's part of the ZPD. That video might at most rate just a mention by itself, but if we really jump on this-"

"Yes, we could make quite a story out of it. If it grabs enough attention we could probably push it to headline news on tomorrow morning's papers." His supervisor muttered.

"Exactly!" The badger said, bobbing his head enthusiastically.

The panther nodded, looked straight at him and spoke in a commanding tone.

"Right. I'll shuffle around some stories for the five o'clock broadcast and warn Peter and Fabienne to expect a change," she checked her watch, "We don't have anything better right now so we're going to run with this. That gives you 3 hours to dig up everything you can. And I mean _everything_. Every. Last. Juicy. Piece. Work your ZPD contacts, I want to emphasize the part about this being an interspecies couple that work to protect the city. Send people out to contact their coworkers and see what they can dig up. Get in touch with our camera crews working the festival and have them keep an eye out for them, I want video of them at the festival and concert. I want shots of them holding paws, kissing, something. I'll tell George that this is now the priority and he's to focus everything we can on it; he'll help you coordinate our resources." She looked at him and made a shoo-ing motion, "Well, what are you still doing here, go! Times ticking."

* * *

A/N

...

Operations Clock: +3 hours

...

Note in Classified folder:

Request for secret squirrel strike team to commandeer concepts from:

Target 1) MinscLovesBoo's: 'Love's Tails' - YOUR DOOMED + others *cough* Wolfeyer *cough*, (Just take everything)

Target 2) Twisted Rain: author of 'Tis the Season' series - Cheetah frosted Donuts

Approved

Signed by (name blacked out)

...

Additional Memo found in Classified Operations folder:

I've got a bone to pick with Fate or Destiny or what every cheesy term you use. After I found myself trapped writing, I swore that I would never _NEVER_ write a one-shot story. PERIOD. Now that Christmas special I did with Fox in the Hen House was a co-authored piece, so that was only part mine, hence that one-shot doesn't count. Fox in the hen house gleefully egged me on to write this when I bounced the idea off of him, so I decided that this stupid _short_ valentine's day story would be posted in a few segments, therefore making it not a one-shot and preserving my grinchy honor (I may have also wanted to dangle some bait for readers and see if I could make any of them break from the anticipation while waiting for Valentine's day, but that's not the point here). The point is that I was trying to cheat my oath without technically breaking it (like any proud grinch would) of not writing a one shot by writing the story in a few small chapters. Now look where I am? So screw you Fate! And stop laughing at me, because I just put you at the top of my naughty list (Santa is now #2, and the pirates are #3), you'd better run and hide from my grinchy wrath! Hell hath no fury like that of a punked grinch!


	8. Chapter 8 - A Burning Fuse

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +3 hours

…

Disclaimer: How'd the grinch get loose?! Oh God he's headed for the Fluff arsenal!

Quick get to the Bio-Hazard Suits!

"MUHAHAHAHAHA"

* * *

Chapter 8 – A Burning Fuse

"Where'd they go? Where'd they go?!" Ralph asked frantically.

"RIGHT!, Take a RIGHT!" Nadine shouted, then held on as she was thrown sideways as the cruiser pulled a tight turn.

"There, THERE! In front of the delivery truck!" she said with relief.

"Are all cab drivers _nuts_?!" Ralph growled out, weaving a bit in the light traffic to get closer.

"In my experience?" Nadine said, finally taking a full breath, "Yes, Yes they are. And really good at just staying on the far side of doing something we can arrest them for." She added checking the radar again which was showing the cab going right at the edge of what they would pull someone over for. The driver hadn't broken any laws but he'd come so close in the last couple minutes that he'd stripped the paint off them.

"Get ready, he's probably going to take-" Nadine started to as the cab braked and slewed around a turn casing the cars near him to honk.

Ralph cursed, working to cut back across the traffic and barely managed to make the exit for the stadium only to come to a tire screeching halt a few moments later as the smaller cab pulled a turn underneath a parked elephant sized 18 wheeler that was blocking the small side road the cab had taken a short cut down.

"Damnit! Ralph, they're going to be get to the Pier before we catch up," Nadine said quickly unbuckling and throwing open the side door, "Park and catch up to me at the main gates." She shot out of the cruiser dropping to all fours and sprinting under the parked trailer and down the side walk.

* * *

"Okay, that had to be illegal," Nick whispered, his heart feeling like it was jammed in his throat where it had jumped out of fear as the cab swerved under the trailer.

He felt a small paw squeeze his, which caused his already out of place heart to flip a few times, as Judy responded in a tone that betrayed her fright, "Code 4052, section…, " she gulped as the car swerved again, " t-two. Small mammal's vehicle exception to rule 332 regarding improperly parked vehicles blocking normal routes of t-traffic."

Nick gave her a 'are you serious' look before glancing back forward with a look of terror as the view out of the windshield slewed again. Though, giving it a moments thought, he failed to see how watching their oncoming doom would do much good.

"Did you memorize the entire Zootopia legal codes list?!" Nick asked, as he watched what seemed to be an approaching crash as his view of a parked car in front of them grew to encompass the entire front window.

Judy meeped seeing it, right before the cab signaled and shifted lanes missing it by mere inches, and then squeaked out a, "Yes"

Nick thinking of how stupid of a question that was considering her work ethic, would have face palmed, but one paw was holding onto the door and the other was holding onto Judy's and he wasn't about to let go of his death grip on either.

"Well-they've-really-pulled-everything-out-this-year,its-probably-because-of-the-concert-I-mean-who-doesn't-like-gazzel?" the squirrel cab drive continued in his unbroken chattering monolog gesturing out at the stadium they were passing before pulling a sharp turn and coming to an abrupt halt while not even seeming to pay attention to the road, " -you-two-love-birds-enjoy-yourselves, 'll-be-10.50-please,cash-or-credit?"

Nick shakily handed over some money not even having clearly heard how much the fare was and nearly dragged Judy out of that death trap on wheels, not wanting her near it, let alone in it for more than a moment longer than they had to be. He hadn't even finished closing the door when the cab shot off, causing Nick to yelp and pull Judy to him.

"We are _Never_ doing that again." Nick said, only realizing that he'd all but wrapped Judy up in a hug when she nodded and the back of her head bumped his against his chest. His ears flattened and he quickly let go, but had to make an extra effort of will to get his tail to unwrap from around her.

"Um, sorry about that," he mumbled, looking away trying not to think how nice it was to feel her against him, "Tickets, um right, where are the ticket booths?" Nick said looking around before spotting the booth, grateful for the distraction.

Judy bumped his hip, her face still a little flushed from the cab ride of doom and took his paw in one of her own. She folded back her ears with the other and putting on a cheery face, though he could see she was still breathing a little fast.

"Well, now that _that's_ over, you ready for some fun?" she asked with a smile that did not help his still racing heart. He had to take in a deep breath before he was sure he had his voice under firm control and wouldn't squeak as he gave her his best smile in return.

"Definitely, Fluff. Lead on"

* * *

Megan was just about to leave, heading out for a real party night with some of her friends from the fire station when she heard the knocking again.

Knock, knock, knock.

She stuck her head out the door only to see a beaver and a zebra who was carrying a camera with ZNN on it, standing in front of Nadine's door.

"I don't think she's here." the beaver said over to the zebra who shrugged in response.

"Want to try the next address, we need to get something and the door isn't talking."

"Can I help you?" Megan said curious as to why there were newsies here.

"Oh, hello." The beaver said turning to her and using a more professional sounding voice said, "Tod Irontail, ZNN, you wouldn't happen to know if Miss Fangmeyer is here would you."

"More like Mrs. now" Megan giggled smugly, thinking of how flustered Nadine had been this morning. Flustered or not, that tiger sure had moved fast, she wouldn't be surprised if they'd openly marked each other by the end of the day considering that Nadine had already put a claim on him, "She's out with her new mate right now, what do you all want with her?" she finished refocusing on the beaver.

"See Tod, she's gone. Let's get going before the other teams beat us to the story." The Zebra said turning.

The beaver gave him a nod and turned back to Megan, "Thank you Miss. Sorry for disturbing your day, we were just hoping to ask her some questions about her coworkers," he gave her a pleasant wave and started to follow after the zebra when he stopped and turned back, looking slightly curious and asked, "Did you say she was newly mated? Our information said that she was single."

Megan couldn't hold back a laugh and pulled out her phone pulling up a very recent picture.

"Oh she was, still _technically_ is, but…" she gave the beaver who was now just staring open jawed at the picture, a wink, "A little birdy told me that she's already made her _choice_."

The beaver, still staring at the picture, looked like his mind had just kicked into top gear and had the pedal all the way down to the floor.

"Tod? You coming?" the zebra asked turning back around from the elevators.

That snapped the beaver out of his reverie, and his head popped up as he blurted out, "I thought that cats and dogs hated each other?"

Megan stiffened a little indignant, " _felines_ and _canids_ , please."

The beaver flushed slightly at his faux pas, quickly apology. Megan only gave a slight nod in return. Those stereotypical terms always rubber her and pretty much every other feline or canid the wrong way when another species used them. She guessed it was probably just like how Nadine had explained to her that bunnies hated to be called cute.

The beaver recollected himself and continued, asking her intently, "But they're actual together? I mean, it's just so… unorthodox, especially since they're… well… a feline and a canid."

Megan rolled her eyes as the reporter trailed off, "Oh it's 'unorthodox', but I'm not too surprised. Those two always did seem to get along well as partners at the ZPD, almost _too_ well; it sure would explain a lot."

"There _both_ ZPD officers?" The beaver interrupted sounding like he'd just struck gold.

Megan looked at him, wondering why he found that so interesting, "Sure, Nadine's been working with Wolford for years, why does that matter?"

The beaver turned and waved the Zebra over excitedly. "Mark! Didn't Jim say he was going over to an officer Wolford's residence?"

"Sure, did. Got a text from him and Larry, apparently they're being held up by the pack alpha who thought that they were snooping around their neighborhood," he let out a snicker, "Wolves, glad we don't have to deal with that, come on let's go. We've got a bit of a head start right now."

Instead of following, the beaver pulled out his phone and started typing in a number, seeming even more excited. Megan cocked her head now a bit curious herself about what all this commotion was about.

"Jim, hey this is Tod, are you still at-" he stopped as the phone erupted with noise.

"Now don't you go ignoring me young man. This is a private community. The gate guard told you that he wasn't here so why did you sneak in?" a not very happy matronly voice seemed to blast out of the speaker.

"Ma'am, we apologized already, we thought he was just trying to keep us out, we just wanted to ask Mr. Ralph Wolford a few questions about the ZPD." a different voice nearly pleaded just as another spoke up,

"Mom, not everyone that sneaks in is trying to invade our territory for some nefarious scheme. I don't think they're lying. Why don't we just have them leave a message for Ralph since he's out on his d-… out on an errand today and let them go on their way?"

The first matronly voice broke back in, "Shush Bill, I don't believe them, and I'll be talking to you next. I went to all the trouble of setting up a date for Ralph tonight, he's too old for all this lone wolf teenage rebellion stuff. It's past time for him to grow up and find a mate. I don't know where he went scampering off to, but he's not going to skip out on this date… _again_. You two were talking all last night, thick as thieves, and as soon as I'm through with these two _you're_ going to tell me exactly what all that was about. Now," there was some noise that sounded like the phone being picked up, and the voice came through more clearly, "Who is this? And if this is a solicitor or-"

"Ma'am," the beaver broke in, "This Tod Irontail, Reporter for ZNN, sorry if there was any confusion but we are just going around to interview local ZPD officers for a story."

"This isn't another gossip rag article with crazy stories about city wolf packs is it?" the voice said sounding rather dubious, "You all and your tabloids spouting nonsense just because we're different have been nothing but trouble for us."

"No, ma'am, nothing like that we were just doing a small article about couples in the ZPD for Valentines day-"

There was a laugh, "Then you're barking up the wrong tree, my son hasn't been on a date I haven't forced on him in years."

"Well, ma'am," the beaver stopped and then, seeming to want confirmation first, asked, "I presume you're Officer Wolford's mother?"

"You'd presume right." came a clipped response.

"Well we wanted to ask about his coworkers Judith Hopps and Nicholas Wilde and their relationship, but now that you've mentioned your son, I'd like to ask you some questions about him and his new mate."

The was a second or two of complete silence, before a muffled, 'Oh, shit,' and scrambling sounds followed by a door slamming shut to the shout of, "BILL! You get back here! What does he mean _NEW_ _ **MATE**_ _?!_ "

"ah-oh," Megan said, try not to sound too giddy, though she was having a hard time as this sounded like something out of a tv drama, "Ralph might have forgotten to mention some stuff to Nadine."

"Nadine? Who is this Nadine? My son hasn't mentioned any wolf named Nadine. You, who was that speaking and what do you know about my son?!"

Megan's smile disappeared. Watching drama was one thing, she didn't want to actually get in the middle of this drama.

"That was Miss. Fangmeyer's neighbor, she was just showing us some photos of how nice of a couple her neighbor and your son made."

"Fangmeyer?! _Nadine_ _Fangmeyer_?! His partner at the ZPD, his partner the **_Tigress?!_** How long have they been going out? When did this start? I Can't _Believe_ he's been hiding this from me!" there was a very menacing sounding growl.

"Um, you know I… ah, gotta go… lots to do tonight," Megan said backing up, before turning and making her escape with a quick, "See ya! Good luck with the story!"

* * *

Judy had been through quite a few crazy car rides and chases but she was used to being the one behind the wheel, so that, she reasoned, was why heart was still beating so fast.

She couldn't help but wish that Nick would have held her just a bit longer after that heart pounding cab ride though. She knew he'd only done it in the adrenalin rush of escaping that car given how quickly he had let go, but it had felt wonderful to have him hold her, wrapped up like she was something precious to him.

That though, she chastised herself, had been a little undeserved bliss for her.

Judy focused her thoughts and determined back on the present and on making sure that Nick would have as good of a day as she could possibly make for him. Not even the bored-out-of-his-mind employee behind the ticket booth would dampen her spirit. What did manage to bring it crashing down thought was the stickers he handed to her.

The larger sticker read 'Somebunny loves you' and the other, a slightly smaller one read, 'Foxy Lady'.

She could feel her ears stand bolt upright in alarm as she nearly choked.

"We can't wear these!" she cried out, though the pig behind the booth looked utterly unconcerned.

"You don't have to go to the festival or concert either,"

"But, but!" Judy tired, but he continued right over her protest.

"You choose what to put on them when you called to confirm the reservations. Next!" he waved them away.

Judy just stared, her mouth moving up and down but with no sound coming out. She could feel tears welling up. All she had wanted was to have a day with her partner, her friend, to let go and relax for a bit, to get Nick's mind off the trouble between him and his carrot be damned girlfriend, this… this was going to be like a punch to that wound, _this_ was going to hurt him.

First there had been the coffe house fiasco and now this?! Judy could feel all her emotions boiling over and she was on the verge of breaking down and crying when she felt a paw on her shoulder and was pulled to Nick's side.

"Come on Carrots, whatever it is it can't be that bad." Nick said softly rubbing her shoulder as she sniffled and felt herself moving along with Nick away from the booth. She hated when she got like this; she'd thought she'd gotten a handle on her emotional outburst and the waterworks she'd inherited from her dad years ago, but something about today had them roiling out of control just like her heart after that cab ride. She tried not to, but she couldn't help turning into Nick's side and gripping his shirt as she tried to stop her tears and emotions which seemed to be rioting.

Judy barely noticed when they sat down on a bench, but she sure noticed when Nick's other arm wrapped around her holding her in a tight hug. Before she realized it, both her arms were wrapped around his large chest and her short muzzle was buried in his ruff as she continued to sniffle.

Judy could feel his heart beat, strong and fast and calming, but his paws rubbing softly on her back made her want to cry more because she wanted him to be able to hold her like this all the time.

"S-Sorry, N-Nick." She sniffed, letting herself just imagine for the moment that he was hers and letting his strong musky scent wash over her, calm her.

"Oh you bunnies, always with the tears, your dad was just like this seeing you speak at my graduation. I guess it's true and all bunnies are just overly emotional."

Judy tried to refute that, but hiccupped.

She felt more than saw Nick's smile at that, and he whispered to her, "You know I like it more when you're happy, but you are pretty cute when you're like this."

That got and angry hiccup and a thump of her paw, but then another hug, since he'd effectively stopped her tears, just like he'd probably planned to.

 _Dumb lovable sly fox._

Nick responded to the hug for a moment but then he moved back and gave an embarrassed cough.

"Well, let's see what upset you so much," and before Judy could protest he'd deftly snatched the stickers out of her paw to look at them.

"Nick, no!"

He tried not to show any reaction, but she was leaning right up against him reching for the stickers and felt it, felt his body go ridged for a second, heard his heart rate spike. It might not have shown but she knew that somewhere deep inside the sight of those stickers had hurt.

"Well, I do think you'd make quite the vixen, if a do say so myself, Judy," Nick said, trying to brush it off as a joke, just like he always did.

"Nick, I'm so sorry, Clawhauser grilled me yesterday about the passes, I didn't think he'd call and… and do that!"

Nick took the large of the two stickers, looked at it for a second before peeling it and sticking it on his shirt in the same spot that he'd worn the Junior Detectives sticker all the way back during the Missing Mammals case. He looked at her and smiled, or tried to smile, she could see the cracks in it, a bare shadow of pain that he was keeping locked away.

He reached out and ruffled the fur on her head.

"Don't worry about it Carrots, Benji's probably just heard too, in fact, I've heard that a certain bunny _knows she loves me._ " he finished just like he always teased.

She thumped him with her paw again, then sighed and let her head fall against his chest.

" _Nick_! You know I do." She sighed again before continuing, "But what about others when they see that?" she could feel him shift ever so slightly at that but he responded with his flippant hustler persona that was his fallback.

"So what?"

"Nick, they'll assume that… that we're together!"

Another subtle but uncomfortable shift from him and this time when he responded his voice had lost some of its cheer.

"I… I guess you wouldn't want that. Sorry fluff, I wasn't thinking. I just don't want to see you sad."

"Nick! I don't care about what others think! You're my friend. What I'm worried about is what your girlfriend will think if this gets back to her! I don't want to ruin that for you!" Judy said and closed her eyes feeling tears from anger and sadness welling up at the thought of that stupid vixen.

Nick had gone entirely still and Judy, realizing how inappropriately close she was to him, scooted off his lap to sit next to him.

Nick turned his head and gave her an odd look she couldn't interpret and then asked, "Um… girlfriend?"

"Yes, your girlfriend." Judy said a bit sharply, trying to not to burst into tears again or fly off into a rage at the thought of that stupid fox stealing vixen. She knew that those reactions were overboard and unjustified, but for some reason she simply couldn't understand she was having an impossible time trying to keep her emotions bottled up right now.

"Carrots, I don't have a girlfriend." Nick said still seeming completely lost.

Judy rubbered her eyes tiredly wishing she didn't have to deal with this. "Nick, everyone at the precinct knows you have a girlfriend, you don't need to keep it secret."

With her paws over her eyes she didn't notice till it was too late and couldn't avoid his finger that flicked her nose.

"You need to check you gossip sources Fluff, because I _don't_ have a girlfriend."

"Nick, I'm not dumb, I know that it's mating season for you. I've seen how you've been acting," he went rigid again at that, his heart rate skyrocketing and she poked him in the chest, "See! Just like that. I know there's some vixen you're in love with. Don't try to deny it!"

Nick's face had gone blank, completely unreadable blank, even to her. He just looked at her utterly expressionless like that for she didn't know how long before he facepalmed, muttering, "Dumb bunny."

"Am not! Dumb Fox!" She whacked him in the arm, maybe a little harder than she normally did.

"Ow! Careful there Fluff! Geeze, you're gonna break me one day if you keep that up." he rubbed at the spot theatrically but sighed when she didn't let up with her narrowed look.

"Fine, Carrots. Your right, or partly right at least. There's a lady, a very Foxy lady that I'm in love with." He looked so wistful for a moment saying that but then his ears drooped and his shoulders sagged, before he continued dejectedly, "But she's not my girlfriend."

Now it was Judy's turn to feel confused, and she blurted out, "But why not?!"

Nick shook his head sadly, "Besides that she's too good for me?" Judy gave an incredulous snort at that and he stopped and looked at her seeming to examine her face as if trying to see if she understood, but ended up sighing again.

"She _is_ too good for me, but more importantly she's not interested in me like I am in her." he finished all his normal spirit seeming to go out of him.

Judy looked at him, looked at the glimpse behind his mask at the hurt that he kept hidden from everyone else. As much as she hated to do it, she couldn't let that stand. She didn't want to, she wanted to take him for herself, but she could see how much this girl meant to him and she couldn't bear to see him like this. She reached out and put her paw on his arm, and he flinched almost as if he was scared.

"Nick, you can't give up. If you really love her then you have to keep trying. I want…" she had to take in a deep breath and hold back the tears, "I want to see you happy Nick, I want to meet this girl once you win her over and… and… be there at your wedding, m-maybe I can be your best mammal, give a speech and toast." Judy felt like something was being torn apart inside as she spoke, but this was Nick. He was her best friend, the most important mammal in the world to her. She'd suffer anything to see him happy, even suffer through watching as he went off to marry someone else. She'd bare it because she loved him.

Nick though just gave her a sad smile that broke her heart.

"Thanks, Judy. But it's not enough. I can't change what I am," he gestured at himself, "I'm just a red fox, she'd never be interested in me."

 _She's not interested because he's a red fox? Is she a different type, maybe an arctic fox? Wait, there was that ZBI agent we worked with a while back, one he joked with the entire time._

Judy could feel her paws clench with rage,

 _Her?! Is that who he's in love with? And she doesn't want him because he's a RED fox?!_

"If she doesn't want you just because you're a red fox, then she's the _Stupidest, DUMBEST_ , mammal that ever lived!" Judy ground out venomously.

Nick gave a sad short laugh at that, "Don't say that to her face, she might just clobber you if you do."

"I'd like to see her try!" Judy spat, crossing her arms, "I'd pound her into the ground."

 _When today is over I'm going to track down that fox, what was her name, Sky or something? She and I are going to have a little talk about not breaking my foxes heart!_

Nick gave her another short laugh, this one a little less sad, and then gave her a hug, not a huge hug, but one that let her know that just being there, by being his friend, that it helped.

"Nick," she hugged him back and forced the next words out despite how they hurt, "If you love her, don't give up."

He gave her one more squeeze and then sat up breaking the hug. She could see a small smile on his face, small but real.

"Okay, Fluff. But we're supposed to be having fun today. Just you and me." he took the other sticker, peeled it and reaching around, slapped it on her back. "There now we can go and you won't have to worry about seeing it." she punched him again, his smile growing a little too smug, but it wasn't a hard punch and she could feel her own lips curve up just a bit in a smile.

"Fine," she slid off the bench and grabbed his tie yanking him of the bench too, "Today is just for us, _We're_ not going to think about dumb vixens, _We're_ going to go and have a blast, the time of our lives! You'll have so much fun you won't have to think about her all day!" she finished grandly, leading him on and into the park.

She was so focused on keeping her ears up and forward, keeping her expression as cheerful and happy as she possibly could she missed hearing Nick's barely mumble, "Won't work, I'll always be thinking of my bunny."

Nick reclaimed his tie and strode up next to her his paws casually in his pocket and bumped her hip.

"Okay, Fluff. I'll take you up on that, I want a day I'll remember forever, the time of my life." He smirked down at her his sly smile and swagger back in full, "And If it doesn't hold up to that standards then you'll just have to try again."

"Is that a challenge?" Judy responded feeling a bit of giddy excitement as they fell back into their normal banter that she enjoyed so much.

"Is that a challenge?" Nick repeated contemplatively, "Yes. Yes, it is." he grinned, "so Fluff what do you want to do first."

"You know, I've never been on a real rollercoaster," Judy said looking around at some of the wooden and steel rides that towered over different segments of the pier, "Closest thing we had in bunny burrow was the tractor hay rides."

Nick straightened up, puffing out his chest and ruff, "Well, we can't have that now! How can you call yourself a Zootopian without ever having ridden a real rollercoaster?!" He took her paw, sending a tingle down her arm and up her ears as he led her in the direction of the nearest rollercoaster, a large wooden contraption, still gesturing theatrically, "Just won't do! Won't do I say! Come my dear we must remedy this immediately!"

* * *

Ralph slowed down to a walk as he approached the entrance to The Pier and pulled out his phone. It had taken him a few minutes to park the cruiser and he was worried that despite Nadine's efforts they might have lost Hopps and Wilde. In a place as crowded as the Pier and with all the excitement and food and everything else it would be incredibly difficult to track them down by scent, and even if he tried it would be like sticking a neon sign over his head proclaiming what he was doing. Not the sort of thing he could do if they were going to keep their cover intact.

He put the phone up to his ear and heard the line connect, "Nadine, I'm almost there, you still have them in sight?"

"Yep, we got lucky." Her voice came back, and even through the phone, just hearing her made him want to wag his tail. He didn't know exactly when he'd fallen in love with Nadine because it had snuck up on him, taking one small piece of his heart at a time until it was all hers. He probably should have recognized it earlier, considering how his interest in the wolves his mother was always trying to set him up with had gone from a casually flirtatious, 'let's have some fun, but not get into a serious relationship' to completely uninterested. It was when his younger brother Bill had jokingly said that he was slipping as the packs lone wolf heartbreaker that he'd started to suspect what had happened… well that and certain dreams always about a particular tigress that had started to become more frequent and far more intimate might have also clued him in.

For a long while after that realization he'd been confused and worried. He'd never imagined in his life that he would fall in love with a mammal that wasn't a wolf, and especially not a _feline_. He'd been surprised at the academy when he'd been forced to work with Nadine, a _tiger_ , but had actually gotten along well with her. He'd imagined that they would have always been constantly bickering or taking digs at each other. It was one of those stereotypes that persisted and that everyone believed to some degree because there _was_ a grain of truth to it. Felines and canids _didn't_ get along all that well, it was like they were two different sports teams with an old deep rivalry (which was an apt metaphor considering the rivalry between the Prowlers and the Pack, the all feline and all canid soccer teams)

For the last year though, Ralph had found himself not worrying about the fact that he was in love with his partner, a tiger, but worrying about how his family, his pack, would take the news, and far _far_ more importantly how he was going to try and win Nadine's heart over. He'd been making plans (lots of plans since he'd thrown most of them out after reviewing them) about how he was going to subtly ask Nadine out on a date this spring when he didn't have to deal with the urges of mating season; he'd ask her out to something casual, something that they might go to as friends, and slowly gauge her response, slowly try to win her over with one small date at a time. His biggest fear had been that if he just blurted out how he felt, she'd reject him out of hand for the sheer preposterousness of it. Not that his plans had done him much good yesterday in the viewing room.

He'd thought he'd screwed everything up, thought she was about to crush his small fledgling hopes, and then he'd smelled it. Nadine's scent was different than a wolf's, she was a tiger after all; it was less musky, more with a sharp tang, something of danger, of fresh autumn air and a hint of wild jungle. He'd found that he'd become addicted to her scent and all the nuances and slight changes that came with her moods, the shift in its flavor when it became as buoyant and warm as her laugh when she was happy or when it smelled more like a hint of summer fields when she was in one of those patently languidly lazy moods only felines where capable of.

He'd smelled a shift in her scent he hadn't been sure of, something he'd only caught the faintest trace of here or there before from her, like during their graduation ceremony from the academy when they'd gone out celebrating. This time though, it hadn't been faint, it hadn't been subtle, and this time he recognized what it had been.

The realization that she was attracted to him had hit him like a sledge hammer. He'd thrown caution to the wind and actually _asked_ her out, asked her what he'd wanted to for so long, what he'd been so afraid to ask before. And while she might have run at that question, she hadn't said no and the spike in her scent, had been like a blazing trail for him to follow. He'd felt like howling out his joy yesterday, had barely managed to stop himself from doing exactly that and proclaiming to the entire precinct that 'She Likes Me!'. Chasing a tiger might not be the smartest thing to do but he'd chased anyway. He hadn't cared if she turned the tables on him, hell she had this morning and he'd loved every second of it. After realizing that she liked him, liked him not as a friend but as potentially something more, he would have chase after her to the ends of the world. The only thing that would have stopped him was if she asked him to. And despite running, despite her silence and refusal to admit anything, she never once said she didn't like him, or that she didn't want to be with him.

That revelation had destroyed all the barriers he'd used to keep his feelings for her bottled up. He loved her, wanted to be with her for the rest of his life and while she hadn't openly said so back yet, her actions, her scent, her kisses told him all he needed to know. It had been so much like a dream coming true that he'd lost it a little this morning; he'd gone into her living room filled with not just her normal scent, not just her arousal, but a sweeter flavor that told of sexual release. And _his_ shirt had been there, covered in that scent of hers.

It was probably a good thing she'd locked him in her room because he'd been completely lost to his desires, he would have continued kissing her, would have made love to her, would have marked her and claimed her as his, _his_ _mate_ , right there and then. In that state, it hadn't matter to him whether he'd asked her, whether she'd had time to think about it or even to agree. He wanted her, needed her, and he'd been lost to his primal side that screamed to claim her before someone else did.

Now with his wits back in control, or mostly back at least; he found that while he couldn't simply keep his feelings bottled up anymore, he at least wasn't (too) worried that he was going to jump Nadine and mark her like he'd done to her bed. He could wait until she felt ready to tell him how she felt too.

"Ralph, you still there?"

Nadine's voice broke him out of his reverie, "Yep, sorry about that, where are you at?"

"To the left of the gates, I've got eyes on Hopps and Wilde. They've been sitting on a bench inside since I caught up."

Ralph looked around and spotted his mate, well not his mate _yet_ but he couldn't help thinking about her that way; instincts were hard to fight against. He changed directions and headed over to her putting his phone away.

Nadine spotted him approaching a few moments later and gave him a wave.

"They're on the fourth bench down across the road inside, see them?" she asked once he was close enough that they could speak normally and not be overheard. Ralph took a cautious glance spotting them and then turned back to Nadine, not wanting to draw attention by staring.

"I see them." he answered, and couldn't help taking a long breath. After her sprint, Nadine's scent was more noticeable through the heavy amount of deodorizer she'd put on. It was intoxicating as always with a hint of excitement, though the deodorizer shrouded much of it. There was also a hint of something else underneath it, something like artificial flowers, maybe a perfume, though why Nadine, who never wore perfume, (not that she needed it with how wonderful she scent was) would put on some only to bury it under deodorizer he didn't know.

Ralph focused once again back on the present as they had a job to do and because even if they were officially mates it was still rude to sniff someone in public.

"Okay, we ready to go in and have a fun exciting day at the festival and not look like we're here to tail a little bunny and fox?" Ralph joked, giving Nadine a smile.

"Already picked up our passes from the ticket booth," Nadine said holding one out for him and then gave him a hard look, "And how did you set that up anyway?" she asked.

Ralph couldn't help the grin that slid across his face. He'd really just gotten lucky but he still felt a bit of undue pride at his accomplishment, "My younger brother has some friends that work here. I asked him for a favor and he set it up for us."

Nadine raised an eyebrow at that crossing her arms, before saying, "And did you go telling your brother about _us_?"

Ralph tried not to let his smile go out of control at her tacit admission that they were a couple, but he was pretty sure his tail's wagging gave him away as he replied diplomatically, "Well… I _may_ have told him about this beautiful girl that I'm in," he stopped rethinking his word choice given her current edict on what he wanted to say, "-girl that I like, and that I'm dating, *ehem* _going_ to be dating." He quickly corrected.

He looked back at her still neutral express and quaked his head, before asking, "Why'd you ask?"

Nadine gave out a huff like she wanted to be mad but couldn't and held out two heart shaped stickers.

" _Because_ , were supposed to wear these at the festival and _your brother_ apparently choose what to put on them."

Ralph took a closer look at the stickers and saw that one read 'Your Puuuurfect' and the other read 'Howl at THIS full moon'.

"Oh, I'd totally howl for you." Ralph said before his brain caught up with his mouth and he shut it with an audible snap. He took a look at Nadine who was both blushing and looking a bit peeved.

"Um…" Ralph backtracked sensing danger, "I'll, ah… I'll have a talk with my brother later." He said, giving Nadine what he hoped was a winning smile.

Luckily for him, he caught sight of Hopps moving off of the bench, and gestured in their direction. "Opps, we'd better hurry or we're gonna lose them!" he snatched the first sticker out of her paw to put on his shirt, "We better put these on if we're supposed to wear them." He gave her another smile just for good measure before heading toward the gates.

Nadine's sighed, and grumbling, started peeling the sticker and followed him toward the gates.

* * *

"Come on, come on, just pick up." mumbled Bill Wolford staring at his phone. His older brother was probably going to be pissed at him but he at least deserved a warning.

The phone clicked and the voice mail message started playing

'This is Ralph, sorry I can't-'

 _Shit, well I hope he checks his voicemail soon._

'-please leave me a message after the tone. *Beep*'

"Ralph, watch out, Mom's on the war path!" Bill started a bit frantically before getting control of his voice, "She found out about you dating your tiger and then went over to her apartment to confront you two about hiding it and ended up talking, well arguing, with the landlady over there. She knows _all_ about your 'morning'," he couldn't hold back a small snicker and smile at that though, "oh and I must say _nice_! I can't believe you and her are already going at it! Kudos to you! I know you said you were serious, but man do you work _fast_! That and there's some," he paused momentarily, "okay, _a lot_ , of rumors going around that you two have _already claimed_ _each other_. So, um… congratulations on your new mate, but um… Mom's not, well… happy," he looked around like she might track him down just by his utterance of her name and gave a cough and quickly muttered, " _pissed as hell_ *cough* about you two eloping and she… um… well she also found out about your plans to move out of the neighborhood and she thinks you're trying to leave the pack!"

He didn't realize he'd started pacing and couldn't help but add a worried, " _You're not right_?" before pulling his courage together and getting to the real point of this call, "Oh… and… _she might have cornered me and gotten me to tell her about that little favor I did for you setting up your date today_ , so um… have fun and watch out for mom! She grabbed dad and they might be headed your way! Cya!" He ended the call and looked at the phone wondering if he should call again or just leave him with the message.

"Well, I tried…" he mused, before shrugging and turning around to head toward his bedroom in the house he and Ralph had been splitting rent on, "Anyway, there's a cute arctic wolf that's gonna need a valentines date tonight since Ralph obviously isn't going to be going out with her, and I need to get ready."

* * *

Nadine tried not to think as she walked with Ralph.

They were holding paws, because Ralph had pointed out that it would be 'suspicious' and would compromise their cover if they didn't, which she conceded made sense. The problem wasn't that she didn't like it, but that she liked it a little too much. She'd realized that she'd started to subtly walk closer and closer to Ralph, almost rubbing up against him when his tail started going into overdrive. Thank Rajah though, she caught herself and stopped before she'd actually started doing something like purring. That, especially with that stupid sticker he was wearing, would have been mortifyingly embarrassing.

Not that hers was any better. In fact it was far, _far_ worse because there hadn't been any good place to put it. Ralph had been trying not to stare but she kept catching his glances over to her and inevitable to her chest. He'd already gotten a free look this morning, he didn't need to keep looking.

His phone went off in the middle of one of those glances and he flushed as it startled him and he realized she'd caught him staring. She might have berated him, but he looked so cute blushing like that, that she simply couldn't, so she decided she give him a pass… just this once.

Instead, she asked, "You going to answer that?" and then looked up to make sure that their targets were still in sight ahead of them.

Ralph pulled the phone out and looked at it before silencing the call and putting it away, which was unusual for him.

He seemed to sense her curiosity because he smiled at her again, which did not help her self-control, and replied, "Might not be the best time for me to talk to my brother, he'd probably ask how our date is going."

"You told him this was a _date_?!" Nadine nearly yelped.

"Well, I couldn't tell him it was an undercover, off the books operation, now could I?" Ralph returned with a grin, "Don't worry, I've got something special planned for our real first date tomorrow."

"You'd better," muttered Nadine, before pointing out the line that Hopps and Wilde had gotten into and heading for it. She looked back over at a slightly nervous looking Ralph and couldn't help but tease him a bit

"So Ralph how do you feel about rollercoasters?"

…

"Nadine?" Ralph's now very concerned voice said from beside her as they sat in one of the mid-sized cars as it clattered up the incline of the wooden rollercoaster, "Did I ever mention that I'm not a fan of heights? Like really _really_ not a fan of heights?"

She reached over and patted his thigh smirking a bit, "Oh you're not saying you're _scared_ now are you?" she teased him happily; there wasn't much that got to Ralph but it seems she might have just found a weakness.

"NO!" he replied quickly, though he grabbed her paw and didn't let go, "I Am NOT Scared of- _Oh my gods how high up are we_?!" Ralphs hold on her paw became a death grip as he made the mistake of looking over the side

It might not be one of the new steel rollercoaster at the Pier but this one was one of the original classics and had remained through the years because for what it lacked in the new fancy steel coasters twist and turns, it made up for that with its sheer size.

Nadine leaned over still grinning and whispered just loud enough to be heard over the clatter of the ride, "Shhh, Hopps and Wilde are only a few cars ahead in the smaller mammals car, don't want them to hear us now," she gestured forward where they could see Hopps, who was nearly bouncing with excitement as she chatted with Wilde who looked just as calm as he normally did, "Plus if an itsy bitsy bunny can handle this so can we."

"She's not a normal bunny!" Ralph hissed back leaning as far away from the side of the car as possible and right up against Nadine. "She's a total adrenaline junkie! We both saw the video of her car chase a month ago, the one that nearly scared Francine to death! She was grinning like a maniac!"

Nadine shifted in her seat and let her tail slip around behind Ralph so that it lay curled around his back with the tip sitting on his lap. He scooted a bit closer seeming to calm slightly.

"How does this not bother you at all?" Ralph asked glancing over at the side again, only to whip his head back. They were reaching the peak of the ride and the view was quite nice.

"Most felines like to perch, most of us like that feeling you get sitting somewhere out of the way or high up as you watch everything, guess this just feels natural." Nadine replied as they crested the top of the ride. Her enjoyment of the view though, came to an abrupt end when her stomach seemed to jump up about a foot from where it should have been in a way that was anything but natural.

* * *

"That Was AWESOME!" Judy squealed, bouncing and fist pumping the air as she and Nick left the ride.

"Enjoyed that, did you?" Nick asked still looking as calm as a cucumber though his lips were curled up in the corners giving away the smile he was trying to hide.

"YES!" She bounced up and kissed his cheek, then blushed furiously as she realized what she'd done.

"Sorry! Sorry, I just got a little excited there," she said looking away embarrassedly and missing how Nick's paw went up to the spot she kissed. "It's just that that was so much fun and I wouldn't be here if you hadn't agreed to come with me… so, um thanks." She finished a bit awkwardly.

Nick passed her, then turned around, his arms behind his back as he walked backwards while leaning down so his head was level with hers. He gave her his full hustler grin and said, "Don't go thanking me yet Fluff, that was just one ride, and one of the older ones at that. Want to go try one of the newer steel rollercoasters?" His grin got wider, "Then maybe you can give me a _real_ kiss as thank you."

"Nick!" Judy said feeling her cheeks heat up at his teasing and tried to swat her overly smug fox but he danced a few steps backwards out of her reach grinning even more.

She held her breath for a second, indignantly but that only caused Nick to let out a laugh. A real laugh, not a polite laugh or a casual laugh at some joke but a real laugh from deep down, the kind of laugh that she'd only heard him give a few times on rare occasions when he was truly happy. It was a sound that she loved hearing.

She let out her breath in a long sigh but couldn't hold back a smile.

"Fine, lead on Slick. Show me a _real_ rollercoaster then."

Nick made an exaggerated bow before turning back around to walk next to her, one arm going around her shoulder and the other gesturing in front as he said, "As my lady commands! This way, if you please."

She let out a giggle and couldn't help leaning into to him. "Do you always have to be so dramatic Nick? Everything in life isn't a joke or a hustle."

He gave her a look that clearly showed he disagreed. "Does that even deserve an answer?"

"Does that even deserve an answer?"

"Well then, what's your hustle this time?" she asked nudging him playfully.

Nick reached up and scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner before speaking, "Well, if you won't tell anyone… see this sly fox was going to hustle a thank you kiss out of an innocent cute little bunny."

"Nick! I've told you not to call me cute!" Judy scolded him her ears heating up.

"Oh, you thought I was talking about you?" Nick said casually, his grin growing to the point it should have broken his face as he looked her up and down, "Hummm, now that I'm looking at you I guess cute might describe you too."

He was off and running through the crowd, before her punch could connect, laughing the entire time as Judy gave chase with an outraged cry of " _NICK_!"

* * *

"Ralph, _don't you even think of it_!" Nadine hissed grabbing him, all but dragging him away from the picture counter after the rollercoaster that showed images of all the seats during the ride, and more specifically away from the screen that showed a wide-eyed tigress in the middle of a scream with her fur standing on end. A tiger who was also clutching at the wolf seated next to her, who judging by the idiotic grin visible on the little bit of his face that wasn't being crushed into the breast of the tigress, seemed to be enjoying the ride far more than the tiger was.

"Hopps and Wilde are headed out already, come on." She huffed

"Best rollercoaster ride ever," Ralph said still grinning as he followed, "Don't you think?"

She turned and leveled a finger at him, growling, "Don't you say anything about that!"

"Aww," he mimicked her voice from earlier, "you're not saying you were _scared,_ now are you?"

"Bite me," she growled back.

Ralph grinned and nipped her finger.

Nadine let out a startled, almost strangled and utterly embarrassing 'Eep!" and stared at Ralph her heart pounding away and her breath coming a little short.

Ralph took step closer, and Nadine tried saying something but her mouth didn't seem to be responding, not that it would have done any good because he stood up on his toes and stole a kiss while she was too stunned to stop him.

Withdrawing a few inches, he looked at her face and whatever he saw made him grin in a very pleased manner. He gave the corner of her jaw a quick nip that sent tingles and shivers through her and made her breath even more ragged, before saying coyly into her ear, "Hopps and Wilde are getting away, we better hurry."

Nadine found herself being led along by a tail wagging happy Ralph, his paw holding hers and only one thought managed to make it into her mind.

 _I am in sooo much trouble._

* * *

"Picture A113 please" Judy said handing over some money.

"Seriously Carrots?" Nick said, and glared at the picture, which showed him, cheeks and tongue flapping like some teenage wolf sticking his head out a car window. "Fine if you want to play it that way, I'll just have to get some blackmail of my own," he turned to the elephant behind the counter, "I'll take picture A115 please."

"Really Nick?" Judy said looking at him with an amused expression, "And what are you going to do with that?"

Nick handed over some cash and took the picture in return before waving it in front of Judy, tauntingly.

"Oh, I don't know…" he started off casually but with a growing smirk, "you know? There might be someone that would love to see this picture of you with your cheeks flushed and ears flapping back like streamers. I even think I know what he will say, probably something like this," he shifted to a high pitched comical voice, "OOOOOOHHHHH M GOOOODNESSSSSSS! She's Soooooo _CUTE_!"

"Well two can play at that game!" Judy said flustered as Nick dodged her retaliatory strike, he was getting too good at that. She turned back to the counter slapping some more money down on it.

"The Deluxe package deal for seat 21 please." She said and grinned back at Nick evilly. Picture A113 hadn't been the only good picture of him. In fact, she'd been looking for an excuse to buy that package anyway. There was one picture at the beginning of the ride where Nick had been leaning over to tease her and the camera had caught him just right. He had a small beautiful smile on his muzzle and the angle and lighting had made him with his thick russet fur look like the most handsome mammal she'd ever seen. And maybe… if she let her imagination wander, the picture made it look like they were more than just friends.

Nick sniffed and then slapped some more money down next to hers, saying, "The Deluxe package deal for seat 20!" and then returning her evil look, "Don't forget Carrots I have your _sister's_ number from when we went to visit your family."

"You wouldn't!" Judy said aghast.

Nick leaned over to her, his nose close to hers and whispered, "Wouldn't I?"

"If you send those to Jessica, I'll… I'll…" She didn't know what she would do, she was nose to nose with Nick her paw jabbing him in his chest with each word,

"I'll…" poke,

Nick was so close, his heavy musk seeming to surround her, clogging her brain as her heart seemed to race out of control, she tapped his chest again, ineffectually, "I'll…"

His grin grew almost predatory, which only caused a heated flush to ripple through her, "You'll what _Judy_?" he asked almost growling in a way that was perversely happy and made another her body shiver with another hot flush. All she could see now was his eyes, his gloriously emerald green eyes that were like windows into who he was, the real fox behind the mask, her fox; windows she was falling into.

"I'll…" she was breathing hard, lost in his eyes, her body seeming to react on its own.

 _I'll kiss him_

Her view of those eyes was broken as an envelope appeared, blocking them.

"Here you two go, enjoy your day."

The spell from Nick's eyes broken, Judy looked up to see the trunk of the elephant holding the envelopes with their pictures between them.

Judy gave her head a small shake to clear it before reaching up to take the envelopes with a muttered thanks.

 _What was I thinking?! I almost kissed him! I can't kiss Nick! What kind of friend would I be if I did that?! He's in love with that stupid ZBI agent._

She needed something else to focus on and right Carrot Freaking now.

Judy grabbed Nick's paw and pointed at the nearest rollercoaster.

"Come on Nick! Let's try that one next!" she said trying to focus all her excitement on the ride, though all she seemed able to think about was the fox she was dragging along behind her. A fox that was still making her heart race, a fox that was causing her to feel far too hot for this time of year, a fox that she was afraid if she looked back at right then she'd kiss.

* * *

"Are they going to go on every damned rollercoaster here?" Nadine tried not to whine as they headed off following Hopps and Wilde, her whiskers drooping. They'd been tailing them for what seemed like an eternity now as they dashed from one ride to the next, like kits on a sugar high.

"I hope not," Ralph said from next to her, not sounding very enthusiastic either, "I don't like the steel ones, the seat restraints on those ones are too restrictive."

Nadine nodded, though it wasn't that the seat restraints were tight that bothered her, it was that she couldn't hold more than Ralph's paw on those rides. At this point she didn't care how it looked, being able to hold onto Ralph made the whole terrifying experience of those gut-wrenching falls and turns bearable.

"I mean come on," Ralph continued a bit exasperatedly, "They've started making faces at each other on the rides just for the cameras!? It's like the ride doesn't faze them at all!"

Nadine was about to respond but then she saw where they were Wilde and Hopps were headed.

" _Ralph_." She barely managed to squeak out, her ears pinning back and her tail wrapping protectively around herself, "Please, _please_ , tell me they're not going to _that_ one. _Please_."

Ralph looked forward at the steel monstrosity and gulped. He looked back over at Nadine and then sidled up to her, wrapping an arm around her, though she wasn't sure if that was to comfort her or himself.

"We… we *gulp* we can handle it, Nadine. We've been through worse," he tried to reassure her, but she heard his muttered 'I think'. Ralph seemed to muster his courage though and managed to gave her a smile even if it looked rather brittle.

"Just think about it like a… a car chase! Yes, exactly, just like any of the car chases we've been through together."

Nadine could feel her fur standing on end as she looked up… and up at the coaster track where a car that roared along it twisting around in spirals and pulling the most ridiculous turns that a must have been thought up by a truly sadistic mind.

" _Ralph_ , when we're in a car chase _you're_ driving. I trust _you_ , I don't trust _that… that death ride_!"

Ralph just held her tighter staring as well, his ears folding back to as he watched the car rip along the track in a blur.

"We'll make it." He said his voice sounding a little shaky, "We've got to keep an eye on those two, and if they can do it so can we."

Nadine swallowed and gave a small nod, and they started moving forward again.

* * *

"Think you can handle this one?" Nick teased as the line moved forward, "You looked ready to jump out of your seat in the photo on that last ride." He waved said photo in front of her and had to jerk his paw back as Judy tried snatching it from him.

"That was only because you started tickling me with your tail!" she huffed, after failing to grab it, "That's not fair! My tail isn't that long."

"And my ears aren't as long as yours either," Nick said back, which got Judy to grin.

"I don't know what you are talking about." She said haughtily though she couldn't stop grinning.

"Sure, Fluff, your ears just happen to keep booping my nose."

"That ride turned a lot, it's not _my_ fault." She said still in that haughty voice and Nick couldn't hold back a laugh any longer. He reached over and ruffled the fur on her head again and when she squawked he lowered his arm to her shoulder and pulled her over to his side. Between two foxes that would have been something far too intimate for 'just friends' but Nick could justify it to himself because she wasn't a fox, and Judy had told him that bunnies were gregarious and liked to cuddle with friends, just like she was leaning into him know. They did it often enough anyway, sitting on a couch snuggled together under a blanket while watching movies. It was just normal for her and she didn't need to know how much he treasured those moments or her contact. She certainly didn't need to know what it meant for a fox to let someone touch their tail either. The feeling it gave him when she held his tail like a shield as they watched cheesy horror movies was one of his most secret guilty pleasures. And she certainly did _not_ need to know that he dreaming of her doing that… and other things.

It might not be appropriate but Nick simply couldn't bring himself to give up those moments. Every moment he'd spent here today had been wonderful. He didn't think he'd ever had more fun and these small moments close to Judy made him happier than he could ever remember being.

It might be a cruel irony of life that Judy wanted him to pursue the mammal he'd fallen in love with, had offered him her support and wanted to be there to see him happily married with some other presumed girl when all he wanted was her.

He gave a sigh, breathing in her scent, she'd put on a light perfume today, something her sister had probably sent for her to try again. Her normal scent was better than any perfume, but this one wasn't bad, behind the artificial smell of flowers was something else, something intriguing that mixed with Judy's normal natural scent but was different, sweeter, even more intoxicating. It combined with the scent of his bunny and had been making his heart beat wildly and his winter urges surge ever since they'd left the coffee shop.

He took another breath, savoring the way she smelled.

Judy had always been right in the past, maybe, just maybe she would be right again about not giving up hope for the love of his life. It was a stupid hope, it was never ever going to happen, and it might break him when that hope inevitably was crushed, but that hope was just too tempting not to hold onto deep down in his heart.

It would be stupid to just blurt out that he loved her, but maybe he could try showing her, continue being there for her, continue loving her from afar, and maybe _just maybe_ , one day she might start to feel something back, something more than just the platonic love between friends. It might just be a pipe dream, but it was his dream. His bunny.

Judy giggled a bit and poked him.

"You've never done that before. I didn't know foxes _purred_." Judy said, and Nick realized he'd started unconsciously rumbling. He stopped immediately and tried to prevent his face from spontaneously combusting. He snapped his ears down so Judy wouldn't see the insides and thanked Karma once again that she couldn't see his blush through his fur. _That_ , was _not_ something a fox should ever do with a friend no matter how close they were.

"Ahh, don't stop." Judy said still leaning against him, "I liked it."

Nick looked down at her, his beautiful bunny, and had to fight, fight hard, not to do something stupid like kiss her. She looked so happy and her scent seemed to have grown stronger, sweeter, mixing with that new perfume to muddle his mind. If only he could always keep her this close. If only she could be his.

"Next! Come on you holding up the line!"

Nick nearly jumped in the air, the voice startled him so much. He looked up and the now empty line in front of him and blinked before finally letting go of Judy's shoulder and moving forward.

A breath, a second breath, and he'd recollected himself and forced a smile onto his face. He turned back to Judy.

"Come on Fluff, you said you weren't scared. Time to prove it."

Judy blinked, before her competitive streak came back in full force. "Oh, we're going to see just who's the scared one, Slick." She grinned and marched forward confidently.

"Woah, hold up there, little bunny," the bull running the ride said, "I'm sorry but this rides new, and they haven't gotten the cars for the smallest mammals approved yet." He pointed to a cutout sign next to the line, "Sorry miss, but you have to be that tall to ride until they do."

Nick looked over to see that the sign he was pointing to had a mark a half foot above Judy's head.

"Ooh jeeze. Damnit, I'm Sorry Judy," Nick said a little dismayed, "I should have checked that, come on we can go find something else to do." He wanted today to be perfect for her, and getting kicked off a ride due to her size was sure to rankle.

Judy though grabbed his paw and stopped him.

"Hold up there Slick," she went over to the sign, gave it one look and turned around in front of it to face the ride attendant. Her arms crossed and her ears snapped up, and with a smug grin that would have done any hustler proud said, "What about now?"

The bull opened his mouth, then closed it. He scratched his chin seeming to think and mumbled, "fur doesn't count but they never said ears don't."

He shrugged and waved them forward.

"First car, make sure your friend straps in tight." The bull said to Nick as they passed, while Judy strolled next to him with a little excited bounce in her step.

Nick took the bulls warning to heart and made sure that the safety belts under the bar restraints were as secure as he could make them; Judy finally had to tell him to stop fussing, before he'd leave it alone.

"Nick! I'm going to be fine. Now get your butt in that seat and buckle yourself in. I'll be madder than a kicked beehive if you get hurt because you were too worried about me to take care of yourself."

Nick gave her a grin and then flicked one of her ears before buckling himself in.

He laughed at the expression she gave him and said, "See those long ears are more useful than a long tail."

She huffed and then reached over to flick the tip of his tail in turn.

Nick swished it away in the nick of time, then with an even larger grin on his face swished it back so that its tip flicked right against her nose, and laughed at how her nose started twitching. He probably should have laughed a little less though because Judy snatched his tail and held it captive in her lap.

"Okay, okay Fluff! You caught me, I'll stop." Nick said still chuckling but Judy just sniffed, turning her still twitching nose up in the air indignantly.

"Oh no! I'm not letting your tail go, not after what you did on the last ride. It's staying right her until we're done." And she patted it with one paw while the other kept a firm but gentle grip on it, and Nick had to work to not visibly show the pleasurable shiver that ran up his tail and through his body.

The safety bars lowered down over them and the attendant did a quick check before the car lurched forward on the track, Nick not caring if he was smiling like a fool while his tail was still trapped in Judy's lap.

* * *

Nadine leaned against Ralph who was leaning just as much back into her for support, as they tried to keep each other from toppling over.

"She's a monster," mumbled Nadine, as she watched the bunny literally skip away next to Wilde as they left the photo booth after the ride.

"Oh thank Balto, she isn't heading back to do that one again." Ralph muttered next to her, "I think I might hurl if we had to do that again."

Nadine despite her shocky state, or probably because of it, giggled, "Don't you go _ralphing_ on me."

Her wolf groaned, "Nadine that was horrible, that was worse than Nick's jokes."

He looked forward again and gave a slight sigh of relief, "Come on let's sit down on that bench for a minute. They got distracted by that booth over there."

Nadine nearly moaned in pleasure as they sat, since the bench didn't move or flip or twist, or try to otherwise violently rearrange her internal organs. Ralph was leaning back looking relieved, and Nadine, not being able to muster enough energy to care about how it might look leaned over (more fell really) until she was laying sideways on the bench her head in Ralph's lap.

There was the sensation of what may have been a kiss before she felt a paw on her head that started to rub and scratch lightly behind her ears. Nadine just closed her eyes and let the comfortable sensation wash over her while she let her sense of balance try to recover.

Ralph's paws she thought, as she couldn't help but let out a low purr, were almost as amazing as his tail, though his tail was far fluffier. She could get used to this though, she thought as Ralph's light scratching hit the perfect spot to the side of her ear and she felt like she might both arch and melt at the same moment.

Yes, she could certainly get used to this.

* * *

Bogo was eating ice cream with Bess, or maybe being feed ice cream would have been more accurate since she'd only seen fit to get one spoon and was taking great pleasure in teasing him with each bite, when his phone beeped.

He frowned in irritation but checked it anyway. It could be something important.

And as it turned out it was, it was a priority message from his operations team.

Claws: Boss we've got trouble. Both the mouse teams watching them say that they're being tailed. Don't know why, but they say that the same tiger and wolf just happen to have gone on every ride they have. What do we do?

 _Who would be tailing them, and why?_

It's not like there could be a second conspiracy out there surrounding them.

 _This is Wilde and Hopps, there could always be another conspiracy out there they've stumbled into_ , his brain reminded him, and he grunted in irritation.

It would be just like them to stumble on something while out on a date they couldn't even recognize as a date. Who knew what mess they'd blindly walked into this time. It could be anything, maybe a money launder operation, maybe a crime syndicate, hell whatever it was it probably was something that would cause the city to go into a uproar… again.

"Dear, what's that? Oh, Benjamin's worried that your little hustle to get your favorite officer team together might be in trouble?"

Bogo covered his face with his hoof letting out another groan.

"Is it possible to keep _anything_ secret from you?" he said dismally.

 _Don't ask stupid questions_ , his mind chided himself to late.

Bess patted his cheek, "Of course it is sweetie, why how could I possibly know something like how you've been secretly practicing Gazelle's stage dancer's routine?"

 _Do not blush, Do Not Blush_

Bess leaned forward with a twinkling smile, "You're blushing again, dear."

Bogo just groaned.

"I'll tell you what, you give me my own private dance show tonight once we get home and nobody, like say… one very enthusiastic cheetah will ever hear about that."

Bogo looked up to see his wife's grinning face.

"Are you blackmailing me?"

She kissed his cheek, "Is it working?"

Bogo sighed in defeat, and looking around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them gave her a small quick kiss in return.

"Fine, Bess, only for you."

She squealed in excitement and gave him a kiss that was bound to draw attention though, by the end of it Bogo didn't cared… much.

"Okay!" she said excitedly, "Let's get going then, I think it's about time we intervened in this little drama!"

She hauled Bogo to his feet, and headed back toward the main thoroughfare.

"Bess! Hold up," Bogo said shaking his head, "We _can't_ get directly involved. They'd recognize me in half a second and then they'll know something is up."

"Well of course." She let out a laugh, "That's why we're going to go get our disguises first!" she said pointing across the street toward a booth for face paints and another with gaudy hats and clothes, the ridiculous stuff you'd only see at Halloween or at a theme park.

Bogo let out another groan as he was hauled in their direction.

* * *

Nick was still giddily happy as they walked down the street from the rollercoaster. He didn't remember much of the ride because he'd been enjoying the feeling of Judy holding his tail in her lap too much. He might regret it later when she used the pictures of him grinning stupidly through the entire ride against him but at the moment he couldn't care.

 _Totally worth it._

He followed after his skipping bunny, and his eyes tracked her small perky tail as she bounced along. She probably didn't even realize it but the way she moved with that bounce in her step, so full of energy and optimism, made her tail twitch ever so slightly with each rise. It wasn't just cute, it was just about the single most sexy thing he thought he'd ever seen in his life. What he would give to-

Nick realized that he was quite literally on the verge of drooling and shut his mouth with a snap. Then he oh so casually made a discreet adjustment to his pants, so that he wouldn't be walking around with a tent. He might be a master hustler but he did not want to even think about having to try reasoning away _that_ to Judy.

He finished just in time, because a call from one of the booths caught Judy's attention and she turned back to him excitedly.

"G-g-get your fortune. Glimpse the future. Madam Pearl…"

"Nick! Do you want to try that?" she asked bouncing up to him with a beaming smile so bright that just looking at her forced Nick to make another discrete adjustment to prevent dying from embarrassment.

 _Maybe letting her hold your tail for the entire ride wasn't the smartest idea._ Part of him thought as he hid the embarrassing discomfort.

"I know it's silly nonsenses," Judy said with a faint blush as she twisted her ear in a nervous tick that made her look adorable, "but it might be fun. What do you think?" she smiled at him again.

 _Nope, still worth it. Anything's worth being with her._

He smiled back, "Sure Carrots, but you should be careful about calling it nonsense. You never know when it might be true."

Judy laughed and taking his paw led him over to the stand.

"You're just saying that because you probably think it's a good hustle." Judy teased.

Nick grinned back at her, "We'll we hustlers have to stick together, don't you know?"

"Ex-hustler, you're a cop now. Slick," Judy beamed at him in a way that made his ruff puff.

"yes, yes I am. _Somebunny_ ," he couldn't help grinning and looking down at the sticker on his chest, his ruff still puffed in pride, "out hustled me and turned me into a cop."

"You made it through the academy yourself, Nick. _You_ turned yourself into a cop." Judy said smiling and turning around, twining her arm around his, "Now let's go see what's next in our future." She said enthusiastically.

 _I might have turned myself into a cop, Carrots. But I didn't do it for me._ Nick thought and smiled as he let his bunny lead him forward again. He knew he'd follow her anywhere she led after all.

* * *

A/N

…

Operations Clock: +4.5 hours

…

MuHAHAHAHA

YOUR ALL **DOOMED**

*Snicker*

...

Now what does this say? 'Fluff Weaponry, Do not mix with alcohol' Humm...

Now where does the Navy and the Pirates store their beer and grog?

#ithoughtidbreakhim #DCP


	9. Chapter 9 - Just Kiss, Darnit!

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +4.5 hours

…

Announcements to all Auxiliary Naval Units (aka Pirate Shippers)

Report to the supply division for your flags before departing to wreak havoc- *cough* before departing to complete assigned mission goals.

(Note: to those pirates *cough* Auxiliary Naval Units, operating in the FanFiction ( -dot- ) net, sector of operations. Your flags will have to be smuggled in due to site regulations, proceeded to either the Ao3 site version, the Zanrok blog or the secret production source at: ocerydia ( -dot- ) deviantart ( -dot- ) com / art / Commission-Zootopia-ship-flags-668421239 , in order to pick up you flags before proceeding on mission. Good luck, and may the plot bunnies be with you.)

Crew members can forward their gratitude for these epic flags to OceRydia at deviantart.

…

Disclaimer:

Damnit! Who put the coffee maker next to the big red button? And why did you let the grinch in there alone?

Stop stammering and go find someone that knows how to disarm a fluff nuke!

And hurry, I don't like the look of that timer.

…

* * *

Chapter 9 – Just Kiss, Darnit!

"Bess, this is ridiculous!" Bogo said, crossing his arms and refusing to step in front of the photo backdrop that had been flipped to show a background image of a wild west town complete with blowing tumble weed.

He turned around to head back over to the changing screen to get out of this ridiculous costume, when a lasso dropped over his head and tightened around his chest trapping his arms and before he could react there was a tug that put him on his rear.

"That's Buffalo Bess to you!" she said in a giddy voice as she started to drag him over, "Yeee-Haaa! Look what we caught here? Yes sir-eee, I think I've roped myself a real wild Indian!" she grinned down at him as she finished dragging him over and he came to a stop, sitting at her feet. "A big chief Bull like this? I think I'll keep him." Bess said gloatingly, posing to show off the cowgirl costume she was wearing and there was a flash from the photographer.

"Thought the damned rope was for show." Bogo grumbled, "And when did you even learn to lasso?"

Bess leaned down around the ludicrous feathered headgear he was wearing and carefully kissed him on the cheek making sure not to smudge the face paint and there was another camera flash.

"I grew up on a ranch before I moved to the city, silly. Remember, the first time you came out to meet my parents and my dad tried to teach you how to lasso an ostrich?" She said and snickered as Bogo huffed.

Bogo remembered alright, he remembered that the damned rope never went where he wanted it to go. He also remembered getting dragged around like an idiot when he final did lasso one of those stupid birds. Damned things were stronger than they appeared.

Bogo got off his ass and fiddling with the rope, finally got it off and handed it back to Bess.

"Alright, you got your pictures, now can we get out of these silly costumes. We have a problem to deal with."

Bess smiled and gave him another kiss on the cheek before sidling up to him and turned to face the very amused wolf holding the camera.

"Oh I paid for the full photo package dear, were not done yet! Plus we have the costumes for the rest of the day and they make for the perfect disguise! Now smile!"

Bogo frowned grimly and there was another camera flash.

Bess giggled at his expression, "Oh keeping in character, are we? Hold on a second." She whipped out the toy pistol from the belt slung at her waist twirling it before posing like a gunfighter in a noon day shoot out while leaning back against him, where he stood there stiffly, arms crossed, grim expression still plastered on his face.

There was another camera flash.

"Oh! That's going to look so cool!" Bess said excitedly changing to a different position, "Don't you think?"

Bogo's grim frown deepened and there was a muffled chuckle from the wolf before he took another picture.

"Crazy Wife, death of me." Bogo muttered deeply.

Bess laughed, "Ohh, good impression! Let me try one too!" She spun around to face him.

"Reach for the sky!"

Bogo continued to frown and tried not to groan as there was another flash and a not so muffled chuckle.

* * *

Judy walked beside Nick, her arm twined around his in a silly fashion like they were going to a formal ball as she led him toward the fortune teller and tried not to skip.

Despite how today had started at the coffee shop, the day was turning out to be even better than she'd imagined. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had this much fun. And best of all was that she'd been able to share that fun with Nick.

She stole another glance over at him and had to hold back a blush. He was wearing his shirt and tie in a loose fashion, the top button undone in a laid back manner that fit him well. Granted, Nick could make any look work for him, but the way his ruff poked out a little made him look mouth wateringly handsome. It reminded her of how he'd looked when she'd pinned his officer's badge on him at his graduation ceremony.

That memory would always be a special one for her not only because he had looked so absolutely stunning standing there in his uniform and smiling at her but because that was the moment she'd realized she was in love with him. Absolutely, completely, no-one-else-could-ever-replace-him in love with him.

Judy did blush a bit when she realized she'd been staring.

Nick grinned at her and casually steered her out of the way of two old goats leaving the fortune teller's booth. She quickly looked away and to distract herself, focused on the old bickering couple making their slow way down the street.

"Are you sure that's what she said Ellie? I could have sworn she said balloons."

"Lagoons! She said our next adventure would be around lagoons, not balloons! You need to get your hearing checked Carl."

"I did, got new hearing aids last week. I still think she said we'd have an adventure with balloons."

There was a snicker next to her, before Nick whispered in her ear causing her to jump slightly in surprise.

"Mammal watching, are we?" he teased, "Bet you they've been together _forever_. Probably since they were little kits."

"Oh hush, you do it all the time on patrol." Judy huffed, then she took one more look at the old couple still debating lagoons and balloons as they walked away with their hoofs together "And how would you know that anyway?"

Nick grinned at her, "Isn't it obvious from how they act? They just have that… I don't know, _that_ look." He gestured at the couple.

"Yes, they sure do now, don't they," said another voice, before a bleating laugh, "Pretty easy to tell the couples that are always together like that, wouldn't _you two_ say?"

Judy turned back around to see the fortune teller grinning at them.

"Well, are you two here to get your fortunes told? See what lies in your future?" the gypsie fortune teller gestured at her crystal ball on the table in front of her, but then gave them both an inspecting look, "Though I'm not sure that's really necessary. Seems pretty obvious to me."

Judy could feel her ears pop up in surprise, "Obvious? What do you mean?"

The old nanny gave a snort that set her jewelry jingling, "Oh come on girl, aren't police officers supposed to be good at piecing clues together? Take a look at him," she pointed at Nick, "He'll be married before the end of the year."

Judy's head snapped over to look at Nick, whose face had frozen mid smile. Her own heart seemed to be suddenly racing, and not in a good way.

"Yes… I already know he's in love." Judy said trying to remain upbeat, but couldn't help asking, "How do you know it will work out with between him and his girl though? And how did you know I was a police officer?" She knew she should be happy for Nick, glad that things might work out between him and that stupid arctic vixen, but it hurt. She forced a laugh, trying to stay pleasant and jokingly asked, "Did you see all that in your crystal ball?"

The goat gave another snort, "What that you're a police officer? No. Got that from the news, Officer Hopps. As for your _partner_ and his love life, well let's just say that's a trade secret." The nanny goat gave her a sly grin.

Judy crossed her arms, feeling a bit like when Nick had hustled her for the first time and asked with a little more bite in her voice than she intended, "Oh? Well, what else can you tell me then?"

The goat smirked and turned back to her crystal ball, mumbling, though Judy's ears caught what she said, "not even necessary but might as well give them a show."

Judy frowned a bit as the goat cleared her throat then looked intently into the crystal ball.

"Hummm… let's see here… oh yes, yes… might have been over generous that it might take a year…"

"and how long will it take?" Judy said, no longer very amused by this.

"Well dear, let's see… I wouldn't be surprised if something changes today, yes, yes. Today. definitely today…"

"He's going to meet _her_ today?!" Judy said dismayed, the idea of Nick meeting up with that vixen, on _their_ day together, was… infuriating.

 _Stupid bunny, Stupid dumb jealous bunny, I should be glad if Nick could get her attention today, not… not mad. I want him to be happy._

"Oh yes, _absolutely_. All the signs are here, clear as day, like their printed right on their _hearts_ for anyone to read. Why, what is this?! He's already given his heart away to this girl! Handed it right to her but she doesn't seem to understand what she has!"

"Damn straight she doesn't" Judy muttered under her breath, angry enough at the thought of Skye rejecting Nick to actually curse for once.

The nanny goat looked down at the crystal ball, moving her head so close to it that Judy could see a warped view of her smirking face, almost as if it was evilly smirking right at her.

"Why what is this that I see here? The girl that holds his heart in her… well not quite her paw, bit odd that she's carrying it on her back, guess she just missed it. Ah well, I think she's far closer to him than she realizes, and oh! Why, now isn't she quite the _cutie_!" The smirk on the nanny goats face, distorted through the crystal ball seemed to grow even wider, "That might be a little unconventional for a couple, but she's quiet the Foxy Lady isn't she now?" The goat looked up right at Nick still smirking, "You've got your eye on quite the remarkable girl now don't you?"

Judy looked at him in time to see him cough and look away, his ears flat against his head, "Um… why don't you tell Judy her future." He muttered after another cough, still looking away.

"Certainly!" the nanny goat said and turned back to her crystal ball, moving her hoofs around it. "Humm. What's in the future for this cute bunny-"

"Please don't call me _cute_." Judy said shortly, trying not to let the anger color her voice too much. Fortunetelling might just be a hustle, a fun little distraction, or at least usually fun, but those comments had hit too close to the mark. That ZBI artic vixen had been surprisingly beautiful and smart and Judy did not want to think of her and Nick going off to start a family, not today at least, not right now. Today was supposed to be her day with Nick.

"Oh sorry dear, of course. Now what is in your future?" the goat apologized and looked back into her crystal ball. "Oh, what's this! Quite the adventurous one, aren't you? Trouble seems to follow you around like stripes on a tiger, though I say, it seems that even you can wear trouble out. Why you might even bring the city to a freezing halt!"

Nick snickered and mumbled, "My Carrots could wear out anyone."

Judy socked him in the shoulder and then crossed her arms, though Nick was still snickering.

"And what's this here? You have your eye on someone?" Nick's snicker abruptly ended as Judy went stiff her ears dropping down, "Dream of him often now do you! I thought bunnies were supposed to be quick to express their interest. Well, you might find yourself doing more than dreaming and collecting pictures of your fo-"

"OKAY! Thanks! I think we've heard enough. Bye!" Judy said, her face flaming as she grabbed Nick and nearly fled from the fortuneteller who broke out into boisterous laughter, her jewelry jingling as they left her behind.

Judy didn't slow down until the fortuneteller's booth was far out of sight and hearing.

"You didn't tell me that you like someone, Judy." Nick said, looking at her oddly.

"I Don't!" She responded on reflex before looking at Nick who didn't look convinced at all. She sighed, her ears sagging. "Fine, I might _might_ have a crush. It's stupid, he's already taken. It's never going to happen." She said crossing her arms and looking away, hoping he'd drop it.

She thought he just might have, because there wasn't one of his usual immediate quips or teases, but just when she finally let her breath out he spoke up.

"Taken already? But you collect pictures of him?"

Judy's face flushed, thinking of the encrypted folder on her computer where she stored all her pictures of Nick.

"You do!" Nick crowed, "Is it some celebrity? Maybe one of the Backstreet Bunnies? Do you have a poster you keep of them?"

Judy flushed more thinking of the ZPD poster with her and Nick that had been made to promote pred/prey relations and the M.I.I. program. She'd quietly taken one and kept it hidden in her desk. That picture of Nick was a shot better than most movie stars.

"Oh M Goodness!" Nick said in an imitation of Clawhauser, "You do! I can't wait to tell Jessica she was wrong; You didn't skip the whole teenage bunny fan girl stage, you just hit it late!"

Nick leaned over to her, his hustler mask on in full and teased though his heart didn't seem in it, "Sooo, who is it that you're crushing on?"

" _Niicckk!_ " Judy said in a long exasperated sigh, pulling her ears over her eyes, "Come on, please drop this. I don't want to think about it. We're supposed to be having fun today."

Judy, after a few moments of silence moved one of her ears only to find Nick staring at her. He still had his hustler mask on, smirk in place like always but his ears and tail were absolutely still. Judy could usually read Nicks expressions even behind that mask of his but this time she couldn't. It really was like he was wearing a mask and the only thing she could see through it was his eyes. His green eyes that flashed with something she couldn't decipher, something… predatory, something edged with pain like a half savage need screaming to be freed.

Nick blinked and whatever that was behind his eyes was gone. Hidden from view once again.

"Right-o Fluff. Fortuneteller not the kind of fun you were looking for?" he asked, fixing a smile on his mask.

Judy shook her head in response, mind too busy trying to figure out what that was she'd glimpsed.

"Well how about something more in line with the overenthusiastic bunny we all know and love?" He grinned his mask fading a little as her Nick resurfaced, her playful, fun loving and teasing fox, "I've heard that they just put in a huge go-kart course. Think of it, you can drive around like a manic all you want and you won't even get in trouble for bumping into things."

"I do not bump into things!" Judy shot back and huffed, then remembered a particular chase a few weeks ago with Francine and added a caveat, "Unless I mean to!"

Nick laughed and booped her nose with a finger setting it twitching.

"So, you _don't_ deny that you drive like a manic!" He said in a pleased voice.

Judy sniffed indignantly and grabbed his tie turning around and leading him down the street, her shoulders a little stiff, though she had a small smile forming in the corners of her mouth.

"I only drive like a manic when I need to." She responded, now smirking, "You drive like an arthritic grandparent."

Nick chuckled, "Point to you Carrots but at least I always know where I'm going. Oh, and the go-karts are the other way."

Judy stopped mid-step, swiveled around and marched past her grinning fox giving his tie a yank to get him to follow.

She could feel the smug oozing off of him and was determined not to give him another sot like that. She smiled though, once she was past him and he couldn't see her face.

That her Nick, not the masked hustler was back and having fun again made her happy, but part of her mind kept going back to that look in his eyes from before. He was hiding something… He'd locked up during that conversation with the fortuneteller, all of his old defenses had slammed back into place, but she had a feeling it wasn't just the mention of the unrequited love from his vixen, that might explain part of it, part of the pain maybe, but there had been something else with it too.

While most of Judy's mind focused back on the present, on continuing their teasing playful banter, there was a small part in the back of her mind that kept working away at that mystery, kept trying to figure it out. Sooner or later her mind would put all the pieces together and when it did and she understood it, then she could figure out how to fix it. How to make her fox happy and make sure he didn't have to close up like that ever again. Until then she'd leave that small part of her mind to keep thinking about that look while she focused on having as much fun with Nick today as she possibly could. She wanted to see him smile and laugh for real again.

* * *

Nadine stalked down the street following their query as her wolf striding along beside her.

Ralph turned, his head quirked at an angle and sporting that dopey smile of his, and asked, "Soooo… do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

Nadine's cheeks flushed again but she kept her head looking forward refusing to look at him.

"I don't get what the big deal was." Ralph continued undaunted by her refusal to answer, "That lioness gasped like we about to rut each other on the bench."

 _Because I might have been about to rut you on that bench._ Her cheeks flushed a bit more.

"Ralph," she finally relented trying to figure out the best way to get him to stop asking questions without really explaining it to him. That knowledge would be a little too dangerous for him to have.

"Scratching and petting can be a little more intimate for felines." hopefully she could get away with a half-truth here.

"So what? Everybody likes a good scratching and it wasn't like it was _that_ kind of petting. You were purring and arching a bit, but there's nothing inappropriate about that," Nadine kept her face forward because she was sure her raging blush was lighting her face up. She'd been doing a little more than purring and arching _just a bit_. His paws and pads and claws had felt exquisite against her; absolute pure bliss. She'd been purring like car engine without a muffler and rubbing back against his paw to encourage him to keep going. Not the smartest thing to do, but her mind had been completely offline right then.

"Sheesh, if you'd been scratching me like that I would have been a panting, tail wagging puddle, but no wolf would have thought that that was inappropriate, well... _that_ inappropriate."

 _Reminder to self, next time I'm in a room alone with Ralph check to see if he really does turn into a 'tail wagging puddle' when scratched._

She wouldn't mind scratching Ralph just to be able to run her paws through his fur, not that she was ever going to tell him that, but the idea of also having him on the ground at her mercy as his tail, his awesome, fluffy tail, went nutz was a very pleasant idea.

 _My tail, my victory spoils._

Oh yes she was going to have to try that out on him.

"I'm a feline, not a canid," Nadine said with a shrug, hoping he'd accept that as reason enough.

"It was more than just that," Ralph said persistently, "A few other felines saw us and didn't comment, it was when I booped your nose that she dropped her purse."

 _Boop_.

Nadines nose and whiskers twitched.

 _Boop._

Ralph had booped her nose. Sure, he just meant it in a friendly playful way. And it was, just not in the way it might be for a wolf.

 _Boop_. Nadine refused to look at Ralph. Refused to hold his paw. Refused to give in to the desire to boop him back.

 _I'd just managed to get my mind off of that and he had to bring it up again!_ She thought irritably.

 _Boop_.

It was playful for a cat too… just the bedroom kind of playful, the don't do unless you're ready for your clothes to be torn off kind of playful. The bed springs are about to creak playful.

But Ralph wasn't done yet, "And why did she look ready to pass out when you bite my paw after I booped your nose? You just held it and growled. What was so wrong about that?"

And now Nadine needed to find a fire extinguisher because her face was on fire. She'd bitten Ralph... in public, not even a small nip which would have been bad enough, but a full-on bite, hold and growl. In _Public_.

 _Boop._

Ralph gave Nadine a far too perceptive look, "Megan freaked out this morning like Clawhauser when she realized you'd bitten my rump."

Her face blazed so hot she was surprised it wasn't glowing like a coal. Ralph seemed to be considering that thought though and weighing her reaction.

 _Stop, there's no fire here, no smoke. Absolutely not. This is a dead end, go look for an answer somewhere else._ Nadine thought desperately.

"There's something special about bites and nips isn't there?"

"NO!" Nadine responded far too quickly and fervently.

 _Shit!_

"What about nose booping?"

She was already starting a denial of that too, but stopped herself and snapped her muzzle shut.

 _Boop._

Ralph had booped her. _Boop_. She had nipped him in return. _Boop._

Ralph's nose was twitching and his tail was accelerating to full throttle. _Boop._ Nadine suddenly became aware of just what those damned thoughts that kept repeating in her mind were doing to her. she was getting hot, hot and bothered in a way that Ralph, with his damned nose _could smell._

 _SHIT! SHIT! DOUBLE SHIT! Quick think of something else! Boop. Anything else! Something terrifying, something mind destroyingly awful. Boop. Dead baby seals, ice cold showers, Bogo in a drag contest._

 _AHHHHH!_

That last one made her shudder in horror, and she thought she might just be able to get control of herself.

She turned to Ralph and pointed a finger at him growling, "Stop with your nose! That's _cheating_!"

"So, what does it mean then?" Ralph asked his smile stretched across his face in a ridiculously happy manner as his tail wagged furiously.

"Nothing!" she jabbed her finger at him, "Not anything," another jab, "Nadda, Zip. Zero. EEPPPP!" that last one came out involuntarily because Ralph nipped her finger and she jumped straight up in the air.

She barely managed to land on her feet, but she was off balance and breathing hard and Ralph, like a hunting wolf coming in for the kill, closed in on her,.

"Then you won't mind if I return the favor? Give you a bite and a hickey to last a few days?" Nadine's breath was coming a bit raggedly as Ralph finished speaking now so close to her, she could feel his breath against her cheek.

She was trying to think, but her brain wasn't obeying her, she-

Ralph nipped her neck.

Nadine had Ralph up against a fence along the side of the path and was kissing him, holding him, nearly grinding against him.

"Nadine," he gasped and she kissed him again, running her tongue into his mouth to tangle with his and she heard Ralph groan in pleasure. She could here a few chuckles and even a whistle or two but simple couldn't care and kept kissing Ralph; kissing him deeply, kissing him until she had to break the kiss or pass out from lack of air.

She lowered her head until it was on his shoulder as her chest heaved and drew in large breaths while she tried to reassert some modicum of will. But despite her best efforts she couldn't even resist nuzzling his neck a little.

"Nadine… Wow… You alright now?" Ralph asked, though his voice had far more growl in it than normal, a growl that made her want to purr back.

"It…" Nadine swallowed, trying to focus, "It might not be a good idea for you to do that to me… right now… in public."

He leaned his head against hers and lightly nuzzled back, "And later?"

Nadine felt a flush creep over her again and she backed up putting some space between them before she tried kissing him again. Ralph's paws traveled down her back to her hips before they finally let go as she stepped back and a tingle of disappointment and regret ran through her at the loss of contact.

"Well," she ran a paw over her ears, the embarrassment of what she'd just done starting to finally make an appearance, "We will just have to see how our date tomorrow goes now won't we?" she glanced back over to check on Hopps and Wilde's position, and was relieved to see that they were still in the line and that they seemed to be too preoccupied with joking and teasing each other to have noticed the commotion of her sudden makeout session.

Ralph's arm wrapped around her waist as he moved up next to her, also glancing over at Hopps and Wilde.

"Guess we will just have to find out later," he growled in that low, almost possessive tone. A tone that she was finding far too sexy, "For now, we'd better get in line before it fills up anymore."

Nadine nodded and they headed for the ride. She didn't even notice until they stopped behind a couple wearing wild west themed costumes in the line that her paw had wrapped around Ralph's back and was resting on his hip. And she only noticed because she had to stop her paw from inching back to stroke his tail.

A tail that brushed against the back of her legs as Ralph gave her a grin that told her he knew that she'd just stopped herself from trying to grope him.

Nadine swallowed and looked away wishing that the line would move faster. Ralph was a cop, a good cop. He hadn't forgotten his earlier questions, he was letting her stew and it was working. Any chance she had of being able to pass those interactions off as nothing special had gone out the window when he'd caught her in that denial, then that chance had gotten blown to pieces when she jumped him. And her only chance out of this now was for the stupid line to move faster before he asked her-

"Those two really went all out on the costumes, don't you think? Much better than some of the other couples wearing matching costumes." Ralph said nonchalantly, catching her off guard as she'd been bracing for more questions regarding their previous activates.

She only nodded in return trying to adjust to the shift in topic. Ralph leaned over closer to her, "Think we should try that later? I think we'd look pretty good dressed like Tarzana and Jake."

She nodded again automatically before balking, "Ralph! Seriously?! No way, I am not dressing up in a costume that's just a few scraps of cloth!"

Ralph's grin was widening and he slowly looked her up and down with an almost hungry gaze, "I think you'd look amazing dressed like that, _and_ you already agreed."

" _Ralph_! Come on that's not fair!" Nadine pleaded.

"Life's not fair," he replied smugly and Nadine couldn't help but think that he'd been hanging out with Wilde a little too much lately, "Tell you what. I'll let that go if…" he raised himself up and nuzzled her cheek, "You explain to me what the deal is with nose booping and nipping for felines."

 _Yes, he has been hanging out with Wilde too much._ Nadine thought as she blushed, trying to think of how to get out of this one. Ralph though just smiled. He had her and they both knew it, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

There was a laugh from behind them and a voice spoke up, "I think you're in over your head little wolf."

Nadine turned around to see a large male tiger behind them and Ralph shifted so that he was standing in front of her, his ears back threateningly.

The tiger looked more amused that threatened. "You don't even know the first thing about tiger courtship, do you?" Ralph's muzzle rippled like he was trying to hold back a growl and the tiger snorted, "A tigress like that would break you _dog_ , she needs a _real_ male. A real _tiger_. Hell, she probably wouldn't have given you a second glance if she wasn't starting to go into heat." He gave Ralph one last dismissive glance before giving Nadine a charming smile and holding out his paw, "How about it sweetie, I could show you a good time today, maybe get you backstage after the concert," He said sounding self satisfied in his own importance, "I know some of the dance crew, you might even get to meet Gazelle, _and…_ _I_ could certainly take care of that itch for you tonight. Little bitty doggie like that would never satisfy _you_."

Ralph was nearly shaking with rage and Nadine could sense that he was about to lose his control… not that she felt much better.

 _He thinks that I'm just and easy lay?!_

Nadine's tail wrapped itself around Ralph's waist and tightened, forcing him to take a step back, right up against her, which effectively stopped him from attacking the tiger.

That would have been bad. Not only because Ralph would probably wipe the floor with him, despite being smaller, and would certainly get in trouble for being in a public brawl regardless of who instigated it. But if Ralph attacked, she'd follow and she didn't trust _her_ self-control enough at the moment not to really hurt this smug prick in a full-on fight. In fact, she really _really_ wanted to wipe that smugly selfcenter smile off his too pretty face. He'd insulted her and _her_ _wolf_.

That she decided, needed a response. Maybe not a 'put him in the hospital response', but a response non the less.

Nadine smiled back at the tiger, and she felt Ralph still against her as he noticed that smile.

He muttered a quiet, "Oh shit," before in a slightly louder almost pleading tone, " _Nadine_ ,"

The tiger hearing the worry in Ralph's voice, smiled back at her, though probably for the wrong reason. Ralph knew _that_ smile of hers, and was probably worried about what she was about to do, but her boiling anger at this tiger was too much for his soft plea to stop her, though it reminded her not to break this prick.

She reached out taking the tigers paw, and the other feline gave Ralph a triumphant look right before Nadine nearly jerked him off his feet as she yanked him forward only for her other paw to jerk him to a stop as it, with her claws extended, wrapped around his throat, the tips digging in painfully.

She leaned forward her smile turning openly menacing and let out a growl.

" _You_ could never match up to _my wolf_. Not in _bed_ and not in a _fight_ ," she might have squeezed slightly because the tiger wheezed a bit as she continued and grabbed futelily at her arm, "Your lucky I don't just let him grind your smug face into the ground, but that might cause _trouble._ " she did squeeze that time and his eyes seemed to bulge, "So go look for easy tail somewhere else and leave me and my boyfriend alone or you'll be explaining to your friends backstage why your auditioning as a soprano."

With a shove, she sent him stumbling back. He kept his feet, barely, but coughed a few times and stared back at her in shock.

Nadine leaned down, her eyes still on the other tiger, and very deliberately let out a purr and nipped Ralph's chin.

The tiger's expression changed to one of disgust.

"Freakin pervert," He spat at them and turned, storming away.

Nadine just purred louder making sure he could hear it.

There was a kiss against her muzzle and Ralph spoke up, distracting her from the retreating threat.

"Thanks Nadine, I think I might have been about to do something stupid there for a few moments."

She kissed him back and could feel his tail trying to wagging despite being trapped against her. Ralph cocked his head so that he could get a better angle to see her, since her arms and tail wrapped around his front was keeping his back pressed against her.

A huge grin started growing on his muzzle and Nadine stopped her purring, sensing a new danger.

"So I'm officially your _Boyfriend_?" he asked, and Nadine groaned.

"That's… I didn't…" she wasn't sure how to even start trying to talk her way out of that one.

Ralph's grin got even wider, "You called me ' _your wolf'_." And when she closed her eyes and groaned this time he took advantage of her inattention and snuck in a kiss right on her lips, his tail doubling its effort to free itself and wave like a flag.

"That makes you ' _my tiger'_ , and ' _my girlfriend'_."

"Probationary," Nadine muttered, "You get _probationary_ boyfriend status until our official date tomorrow. Happy?"

He kissed her and growled in a deep, contented manner.

Nadine's breath might have been coming a little short by the end of that kiss so she released him and moved to stand next to Ralph, turning to face back toward the front of the line, and only then realized that their little spectacle had caught the attention of everyone standing there waiting for the ride.

The couple directly in front of them, a bull dressed like an old Indian chief and a cow dressed as a cowgirl, had turned completely around to watch them, and with quite different expressions.

Nadine blushed hard under the excited and giddy smile of the cow though the bull held a neutrally stern expression behind all his face paint. In fact, the only change of expression he gave once she caught his gaze was to lift a single eyebrow and give a short snort.

"Well, good for you girl," The cowgirl said enthusiastically with a western drawl, "Showed him not to go messing around with you or your man, yes sire-ee you did. Sent him off packing with a burr under his tail! Good on ya. And I must say you two do make a lovely couple." She lost a bit of the accent at the end and turned to the bull, nudging him, "Don't you think?"

The bull just grunted and rolled his eyes before putting an arm around the cowgirl's back and turning back around to face forward in the line as the cowgirl giggled.

However, they weren't the only ones who'd seen altercation.

"Nadine? Ralph? Is that you two." came an energetic voice they were both familiar with; one of the two voices they had hoped not to hear today because _they_ weren't supposed to know Ralph and Nadine were tailing them.

"Here you two can jump in front of us!" a gray bunny said to the cowgirl and bull as she dragged a fox behind her and around the two larger mammals.

"It _is_ you two!" Judy said enthusiastically, coming to a stop in front of them, Nick right behind her with his signature smug smile. "O M G! When did you two start dating?" Judy tried giving Nadine a hard look she must have picked up from Francine but couldn't stop herself from smiling, "Nadine! Why did you never tell me or any of the other officers on one of our girl's nights out?"

Nadine's face was heating back up to searing levels and she waved a paw in front of her desperately, "Judy it's not what you think, seriously, Ralph and I aren't dating."

"She's right Judy," Ralph said standing next to her and not looking embarrassed in the slightest, "It's not what it looks like. We're not _officially_ going out until tomorrow."

Nadine groaned and covered her face with both paws as Judy jumped in the air excitedly.

"That is wonderful you two! How did it start? OMG, Francine is going to _freak_ when she finds out and _Clawhauser_!"

"Hey, could you two smile for a second?" Nick asked, and Nadine popped her head up, worried about what that sly fox of Judy's was up to know when she caught a flash from his phone.

"Perfect." He said tapping away on his phone before smirking at them, "Thank you for that. I just won the betting pool on who Nadine was dating. Clawhauser's been texting about it all afternoon. He's going to be ecstatic to hear that it's you Ralph." He turned to the wolf with a grin to match Ralph's and held out his paw, which Ralph fist bumped, "Congrats, Bud. I think you found yourself quite the keeper."

Ralph's grin widened, and then looked at Nadine in a way that made her blush even more before saying, "Yes she is, isn't she?"

Nick nodded in agreement before asking Ralph, "How'd your pack take the news that you're dating a tiger? I know they can be a little… slow to accept change."

Ralph froze, even his tail stopping mid wave.

 _Oh-uh… that's a bad sign, very very bad…_

"Um, Ralph?" Nadine asked a bit worried by his reaction because Ralph _never_ froze like that. She'd heard him talk and complain all the time about pack politics but it had always just sounded like minor arguments from a big extended family with some silly rules to her.

Ralph looked at Nick, at Nadine and then back to Nick and seemed to deflate.

"Ralph, what's the matter?" Nadine asked again.

"I, um… I haven't told my mother that I intend to court you." Ralph muttered not meeting her eyes.

"Hasn't your mother been the one setting you up with dates to try to get you to settle down?" Nick asked helpfully and Ralph's ears dropped.

"She _what_?" Nadine spluttered. Ralph had never mentioned any of _that_ to her before.

Nick piped up helpfully, still smirking, "Yep, and from what I've heard he's been skipping out on those dates now for well over a year. Your parents are your pack's alphas right?" Nick asked Ralph, who nodded glumly and the small fox gave a short laugh, "Oh she's gotta be angry about that! How are you planning on telling her that you're taken now?"

Nadine interrupted, "Hold up, we're _just_ starting to date what's the big deal about this and…" she stopped and did a double take looking back at Ralph as some pieces of information clicked into place, " _Ralph_ , all those times you asked me to hang out… those times you said you need somewhere else to go because of ' _pack politics'_ you wanted to avoid… where you skipping out on dates?!"

Ralph looked at her and then away, the gray fur of his cheeks growing dark with a blush, "Um… maybe," he glanced back up at her again and then quickly added, "Nadine, I couldn't stand those, it gave me an excuse to say I was busy and somewhere to hideout while my mother cooled down." He gave her one more glance, his blush still rising, and then muttered, "And I liked being with you more anyway…"

Nick turned his grin from the blushing Ralph to Nadine, who was trying to sort through the implications of that, mainly,

 _He was skipping out on dates his family arranged to be with me?_

"As for the big deal," Nick started, "from what I know of wolf packs, well... the easiest way to explain might be to give you an example, so let me ask this first. How are planning on explaining to old buffalo butt that you and your partner are dating?"

That got her attention and sent a chill up Nadine's spine. She'd rather avoid having that conversation with the Chief… like maybe forever.

"Nick!" Judy tried to say sternly, though she let out a giggle, "You shouldn't call the chief that!"

"It's better than calling him Bogo the Destroyer of Souls or Chief Doom," Nick retorted flippantly.

Judy looked like she was about to protest but broke out in more giggles and Nick's smirk for a moment looked more like a real smile as he looked at Judy, but then he turned back to Nadine, his grin back.

"Regardless that feeling you just had, Stripes. Well, I'd expect it to be worse explaining it to his pack's alphas, and since they're his _parents_ and more to the point the she-wolf alpha is his _mother_ … well good luck, because you're going to need it." He smirked, "At least with He-who-shall-not-be-named-on-pain-of-parking-duty you'll only have to convince that you can still function as a team and he'll _probably_ let you two stay together. Granted he'll probably grill you two and make you regret the day you were born, but _and don't you dare tell anyone I ever said this_ , behind that grimace of his, like way _way_ behind it, he's got a marshmallow heart. Just don't ever let him know that _you_ know that or he'll kill you to keep that secret. Though you'll only have to worry about Bogo if you survive meeting Ralph's parents. So, there is a silver lining to _that_ at least."

"There is no way that Ralph's parents could be worse than facing the Chief." Nadine said feeling a little panicked.

"Um… I'd rather face the Chief." Ralph muttered and Nadine just stared dumbly at him, her panic rising a few more notches.

 _We're gonna die._ _We're sooo gonna die._ Kept running through her mind.

Ralph seemed to sense her panic and looked back up at her. He reached out and took her paw giving it a squeeze though his felt a little shaky.

"Hey, maybe we can head off the worst?" Ralph said to her, trying to force a nervous smile onto his face, "I'll ah… talk to them tomorrow before our date and then maybe I can introduce you… again, well introduce you as my girlfriend not my partner," he winced, "um… police partner. It'll give them some time to adjust before anything more serious happens… I hope."

 _I've already left a hickey on Ralph's ass, and he put a scent mark on me! We're dead!_

"Ralph, I'm sure your parents will love Nadine," Judy chimed in optimistically.

"That's not the issue," Nick said turning to her, "The issue is going to be trying to fit a _tiger_ into a _wolf_ pack… oh, hey, the lines moving." Nick tapped Judy's shoulder and pointed before turning back with one last wink and 'good luck' to Ralph as they started following the moving line of mammals.

It took a nudge from Ralph to get Nadine moving, and she couldn't help but whine to him.

"This is _not_ how today is supposed to be going! They weren't supposed to know we were here and I don't want to have to deal with our parents _or_ the chief."

"At least they don't know _why_ we're here, they think we're just on a date." Ralph whispered back, as they both kept an eye on Judy who was ribbing Nick over something, watching to make sure that her long ears hadn't swivel back to catch their hushed conversation.

"But now the entire precinct thinks were dating!" Nadine complained, "Bogo's going to find out and we're going to have to explain this on Monday. We're screwed!"

"Well we are going to be dating, that was going to get out sooner or later."

"It wasn't supposed to get out before we actually started!" Nadine said her whiskers and tail drooping.

Ralph shrugged and took her paw, "They seemed pretty accepting of it,"

Nadine gave him a 'are you crazy?' look, "The _bunny_ and _fox_ too in love with each other to be able to realize it, are accepting of _us_? Wow, that fills me with confidence for everyone else, Ralph." Nadine scoffed, a rising panic starting deep inside, a panic that Ralph somehow managed to help contain merely by squeezing her paw in a silent gesture of support.

"And I think they're right about the Chief," Ralph continued, "he won't care unless it affects our work… though he's probably going to threaten something awful if it does." He shuddered slightly, "We're only _really_ screwed if my mother finds out about us before I can break it to her in the right manner. I, um…" He looked a bit sheepishly and embarrassed, "I probably should have told her a while ago that I was planning on courting you, I wasn't planning to ask you out until after mating season was over."

Nadine almost tripped, "You…" she was staring at Ralph who was blushing hard, "You were already planning on asking me out?" Nadine didn't know what to think about that little revelation, though there was an uncontrollably giddy feeling somewhere in the pit of her stomach.

"I, um… might have already bought tickets to see your favorite team when they're playing here in Zootopia this spring." Ralph muttered still blushing hard and not able to look back at her.

 _He didn't! but… He was planning on taking me to… he'd have to sit on the cat's side…_

"Okay," Nadine said shyly, and felt her own blush growing when Ralph looked at her quizzically, "I'll go with you to the game…" Ralph's tail started wagging again, so she quickly added, "but you have to wear one of my team's jerseys!"

Nadine had to look away from her wolf because that hadn't diminished his enthusiasm at all.

They got to the front of the line and were directed over to a set of go-karts with seats their size. As they buckled in Ralph looked over and asked, "Hey Nadine? How are you going to tell your parents that we're dating?"

Nadine snorted, "I don't plan on telling them until I absolutely have to, and then I'll do it by text from one of the police safe-houses."

Ralph's tail stopped wagging and his ears dropped, "You think they're not going to take it well?"

"No, they're just of the same opinion as Mrs. Woolstien." She frowned at Ralph's pleased smile, "I wouldn't look all that happy if I were you, my parents are a bit… traditional, they're feline naturalists, which is _not_ the same as what you're probably thinking, and while they'll be happy I found a mat- a boyfriend" she glared at Ralph, "Stop wagging your tail like that! _Probationary_ boyfriend!" she huffed and tried hiding her blush, "If you think your little lecture from Mrs. Woolstien was bad just wait until my _parents_ track you down."

Ralphs smile slipped a bit, "It can't be that bad." He said uncertainly, and Nadine laughed in a not very pleasant way.

"Ralph, imagine highschool sex-ed class where the bunny-sutra is the text book and it's administrated by your _parents_ at the Mystic Spring Oasis. Trust me, _bad_ doesn't even begin to describe what that's going to be. The longer we can avoid that the better."

Ralph's smile had disappeared and a look of mild terror had replaced it. Nadine let him mull that over as one of the mammals running the ride came by and checked their go-karts, before moving to the ones behind them.

Ralph seemed to have regained some control of himself, looking like he was about to ask more when his brows furrowed, and he asked something else instead, "Hey, Nadine? That tiger from before, he um… he mentioned something about heat…" Nadine's blush went nuclear, "I um, know you usually are, um, well that you usually take something to mitigate it, but your scent today, well it's been kind of strong. I mean it's _really_ nice, but even with all that deodorant… well, is that why you put so much on?"

Nadine's face was so hot she was sure it had to be glowing like a molten crater after a nuke strike.

She hadn't filled her prescription this month because she shouldn't have been in heat for a few weeks. Something, or more like someone, had kicked it off early though. She hadn't even realized until this afternoon that it was starting because yesterday and today had been so crazy… though in hindsight, last nights spontaneous activates should have been a glaringly obvious sign. Ralph though did _not_ need to know the kind of effect he was having on her.

There was a call from a few karts in front of them, one that had been rigged as a double seater for smaller mammals.

"Hey Nadine, bet you we win! Losers have to go on the ride the winners pick!" Judy shouted back to them over the sound of all the go-kart engines.

Nadine needed a distraction, and Judy, thank the little bunny's enthusiastic heart had just handed her the perfect one. She hit the gas pedal making the karts engine roar as it was still in neutral and shouted back, "You're On!"

"Nadine?!" Ralph hissed, "We're supposed to be keeping an eye on them, not-"

"Best way to keep an eye on them now is to stick with them, plus I'm _not_ going back on that rollercoaster!"

The lights at the front of the line which had been flashing red, flashed yellow once then turned a steady green.

Nadine slammed the shifter into forward and floored the gas pedal making the tires squeal before shooting forward and away from explaining to Ralph about why she had suddenly gone into heat early.

* * *

"I still can't believe it!" Judy said excitedly as they strapped into their two-seater kart nearer the head of the line. "Ralph and Nadine? Do you think they've been secretly dating the whole time we've known them? Because she looked ready to beat the tiger to a pulp and did you see the way her tail wrapped around Ralph!"

Nick looked back over at her from the passenger seat, having declined to drive, which Judy's was glad for since she liked to win. Nick was just too cautious of a driver for something like this.

"No, this is new." Nick said back to her with a smirk as he looked back at their friends a few rows behind them, "You see how openly happy Ralph is around her now? There's no way he could have kept that hidden around the station. I knew he liked her but I wonder what finally pushed him to ask her out?"

Judy laughed, "This is Nadine we're talking about Slick, she probably marched up to Ralph and told him he was taking her out on a date."

"You think so?" Nick asked his smug grin plastered on his face, "I know she is the 'take charge' kind of mammal, but she's got to have a least one weakness and she did seem pretty flustered."

"Well why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" Judy shot back returning his hustler's smirk, "I bet you a month's morning coffees that she asked him out."

"Oh, you're on fluff!" Nick said confidently holding out his paw.

Judy took it her grin widening, "You seem quite sure about that, how about we up the stakes, I'll also bet you that she kissed him first."

"Ohhhh, you are sooo going to lose! My hustler instincts are telling me that Ralph made the first move. I'll take that bet and when _you_ lose you'll have to get me an entire bushel of your parent's blueberries."

"Fine and when _you_ lose you're going to have to come with me out to my sister's wedding," Judy replied, shaking his paw.

"Hey, what? That's not an even bet! The kerfluffle almost killed me last time! And how is your family having _another_ wedding already? The last one was just last month!" Nick complained while holding his tail protectively.

Judy snickered; her little brothers and sisters were fascinated by Nick's long super fluffy tail and had taken every opportunity to ambush him and quite literally drag him off to play with them. He'd taken to hiding in fear from the kerfluffle in Judy's room or trying to use her as a shield against the hoard.

"Bunnies Nick, remember?" she snickered again, breaking into some muffled giggles, "And too bad. You should have named the odds before you agreed to it. You're just going to have to suffer through being my 'plus one' because I'm am _not_ sitting at the singles table and having bucks hit on me throughout the entire evening." She stopped giggling and shuddered at the recollection of the first wedding she'd gone home for while Nick was at the academy. She'd become a bit of a celebrity in Bunnyburrow and every single available buck (and a few that weren't) had made a pass at her. The attention was flattering, but what was not, was the fact that they all seemed to think that once she got married that she'd give up being a police officer and settle down to raise kits.

She shuddered again at that thought. She wasn't going to settle, not like that. It wasn't that she didn't like the idea of kits, but first, she was not going to give up being a police officer and second, she was not ever going to get married. She knew she'd never be able to love any buck like a mate should, not with the way she felt toward Nick, and she wouldn't suffer through some farce of a marriage. She'd rather remain single and continue to be Nick's best friend, even if that meant having to suffer through watching him marrying that stupid ZBI vixen.

"You sly little bunny," Nick said in amusement, and she dragged herself out of her melancholy thoughts and grinned back at Nick glad to have out hustled him once again.

Nick whipped away an imaginary tear, and spoke in a dramatically emotional voice, "My little bunny has grown up to be a such a good hustler, I'm so proud of you!"

Judy elbowed him but he only snickered more.

"I was hustling you from nearly the day we met, Nick. Or do I need to remind you how much help I had to give you resolving some mistakes on your tax forms?"

Nick crossed his arms and huffed but couldn't hold back a smile for long.

"So you did, I admit it, Judy. You're the only mammal out there that can out hustle me." Nick said after he failed to keep the smile off his face, "Hell, I still don't know how you convinced your parents not to freak out when you explained to them you were bringing me, a _fox_ , home as your fake date just to keep all the bucks off of you when you dragged me along to that first wedding."

"That wasn't hard, my parents love you," Judy said, and Nick just gave her a look that clearly disagreed.

"Carrots, your dad passed out when he shook my paw at my graduation ceremony."

Judy waved her paw dismissively, "He just needed to get used to you, that was all. He got along with you fine the next time at the wedding."

"And how much carrot moonshine did he have at that wedding?" Nick shot back and then leaned over close to her, a wicked smile appearing on his face and his eyes sparkling with enough mischief most bunnies would have run in fear. Judy on the other hand had to fight back a blush as her body heated up from the proximity, knowing he was about to tease or hustle her in some manner again, "I bet that your dad would have _really_ freak out if he _didn't_ know that I was only _pretending_ to be your date." Nick was so close that she could easily smell his heavy musky scent. Her nose was starting to twitch and her heart rate was sky rocketing. He smelled so good, his musk was so much stronger than a bunnies, screaming of male and predator, and deep down she knew she loved it, wanted to bury her nose in it, wanted to...

"You know, I think he would have passed out if we did something like, oh I don't know… kiss?"

Nick gave her rapidly twitching nose a light kiss and her nose froze perfectly still as her ears shot up and quivered like the bell on a carnival strength test game that Bogo had just walloped.

Nick broke out into a hysterical fit of laughter, doubling over in his seat.

"NICK! WHY YOU…" she started flailing away with her paws whacking him, a blush burning across her cheeks, but Nick just laughed harder.

"Your ears!" he gasped between laughs, "you should have seen your ears… and your nose! Carrots the indomitable scared by a kiss from a fox!"

"Am _not_! You stupid _dumb_ fox!" Judy nearly shouted as she continued to whack away at him, only to meep loudly and nearly jump out of her seat as Nick suddenly turned, making a kissy face and noises at her before breaking out in laughter again.

"Are too!" Nick said between laughs and Judy huffed turning her nose up indignantly, her cheeks burning. Her mind on the other hand kept replaying that moment his lips had touched her nose and she couldn't help from wondering what it would feel like if he hadn't just been joking, if he had kissed her, really kissed her and she could kiss him back. Nick kept laughing and she kept blushing but not because she was embarrassed by his joke, but by how her stomach seemed to flip and her whole body got hot at the thought of actually kissing him.

"If you two are done, we need to check the seat buckles before we can start," said a slightly exasperated voice from the side of the kart and Nick finally stopped laughing though he continued to snicker, his tail whipping back and forth much more energetically than she thought she'd ever seen it before.

Nick grinned over at her, "Sorry Carrots," he chuckled again, "That was just too good of an opportunity to pass up."

 _Nick wants to play games does he? Well I grew up with 275 siblings, I'll show **him** how to play games!_

She grinned back at Nick, though her siblings would have called it something like an evil promise of retribution, as a sudden idea popping into her head. She knew just the way to get back at him, and she knew just the excuse she could use to force him to do it.

 _If he thinks he can embarrass me with a kiss he's got another thing coming, I'll make him melt into a foxy puddle from embarrassment! We'll see who's laughing then!_

Judy turned around in her seat and called back down the line to where Wolford and Fangmeyer were.

She couldn't help the smile that formed when she spotted the two; Ralph and Nadine looked like a ears over tail in love highschool couple.

"Hey Nadine, bet you we win! Losers have to go on the ride the winners pick!" she hollered and Nadine's head snapped up as she shouted back a "You're on!" before she revered her karts engine.

Judy turned back around to Nick who suddenly looked a little warry.

"Better hold on Romeo." She said hitting both the accelerator and brake as the lights above the start line turned yellow the wheelers screeching as the fought against the brakes only to spit out a cloud of burnt rubber as she released the break a second latter as the lights turned green and they rocketed forward leaving the other karts to eat her dust.

* * *

"Oh, honey I think it's cute," Bess said to Bogo as he tried finding a comfortable position in the kart that really wasn't big enough for him to fit in, "they have all those nicknames for you because they must really like you."

"I could handle most of them, but _old buffalo butt_!?" Bogo grumped, grinding his teeth in irritation.

Bess frowned at that, "I do think you have a point there. Your fanny doesn't have any wrinkles, why its stud magazine worthy, let alone nickname worthy, it's not _old_ at all!"

"Bess!" Bogo tried but failed to slow her down at all.

"Why when we go to the gym I have to beat away all the other cows that ogle your tush when you do squats.

" _Bess_!"

"And the last time we went to the beach and you wore that little speedo for me, I thought I might have to put a brand on the part of your cheek that was visible to make my point to all the other girls that your tush is mine!"

Bogo groaned, hoping with all his might that nobody recognized him, he wasn't sure if even the face paint could hide his burning cheeks.

"Bess, we need to focus on what to do about Hopps and Wilde," Bogo tried shifting the subject, "I don't know why Wolford and Fangmeyer are following them… or that they were dating," he muttered pinching the bridge of his nose at the beginnings of a headache the mere thought of the problems and paperwork _that_ was going to cause him. Those two had become his go to team for tracking because Wolford's nose was excellent and Fangmeyer had a knack for piecing together trail signs no matter where they were, she could track a mammals trail from the rainforest district to Sahara Square. He couldn't lose that team, so splitting them up was out of the question, that though was a problem for next week and he continued, "but we need to do something about them. They could ruin everything if they stick with Wilde and Hopps for the rest of the day."

"Then we just have to split them up," Bess said revving the go-kart's engine and grinning evilly, "Bumping is allowed in these, we just have to delay them; make sure they come dead last and give your bunny and fox a chance to get separated in the crowd afterwards."

"Bess, I'm not sure that's the best idea, they-" he was cut off as the lights at the front of the line turned green and the sound of the go-kart engines roaring drowned him out. He saw Bess in her hot pink go-kart she barely fit in zip forward and hit his accelerator trying to catch up.

* * *

"Nadine!" Ralph shouted, slightly terrified as he swerved around a turn and dodged the kart that his partner had just sent spinning into the rubber padded sides of the course, "You're driving like that crazy bunny!"

"It's not crazy if works!" Nadine shouted back before bumping into the kart in front of her and then into the one next to her, trying to break out from the karts that had boxed her in against the inside wall.

Ralph cut across as the track twisted in the other direction and pulled in front of the go-kart next to Nadine before hitting his breaks. There was a jolt as the kart banged into his kart's rear bumper bar, and an angry shout from the porcupine driving it as they slipped back in the jockeying crowd and an opening formed for Nadine to move through.

He hit the gas again as soon as Nadine escaped, hollering after her, "Just because it works, doesn't mean it's not _crazy_!"

Nadine clipped the railing of the next turn she cut it so close and Ralph swore. He tapped his breaks just enough to get his kart to side skid around the sharp turn and then floored the accelerator using the trick to catch up to Nadine who was driving like, well like a crazed tiger chasing a rabbit.

They shot into a tunnel on the course where it dipped under part of the track and turned to head back to the start line.

They'd pulled ahead of most of the crowd but there was still one kart ahead of them, a kart from which a fox's face stuck out from the side and looked back at them with a taunting smirk, "Give it up slow pokes! Nobody's a crazier driver than my bunny!"

"Not on your life Wilde! This is only lap one of three!" Nadine shouted back.

A small grey paw reached over and grabbed the back of the fox's neck and hauled him back into the kart before it power skidded around the turn at the end of the tunnel, so close to the wall that it left a black streak where the bumper bar had scraped against it.

"Shit! How did she do that?!" Nadine said, taking the turn too fast and bumping into the far wall before straightening out.

"Break. Turn. Then Accelerate!" Ralph shouted cutting inside of Nadine's turn in a power skid that if not as paint strippingly close to the inside of the turn as Hopps's was, wasn't as death defyingly insane either.

Nadine leaned forward in her kart, teeth barred as they roared down a straight away, Ralph right next to her.

"Come on Ralph, we are _not_ letting them beat us!"

"I'd rather them beat us and we stay alive!" Ralph shouted back, "I only just asked you out, I don't want us to end up in a hospital before our first official date!"

"We might just end up in the hospital if Judy makes us go on that death ride of a rollercoaster again!" Nadine replied pointing forward, "Now show me why you're our driver and beat that cocky little bunny!"

They shot through the start line and heard a cackling laugh from the kart in front of them, "HA! One down two to go! Eat my dust Nadine!"

Judy's shout was followed by Nick shouting, "Ya! What she said, Ralph!"

"You see?! We can't let them win after that!" Nadine half growled, half shouted.

Ralph was about to respond but right then a hot pink kart that looked far too small for its occupant pulled up between them.

"I'm sorry sweeties, but you two are messing up our plans for one little bunny and fox," The cowgirl from earlier in the line said, "You two make a lovely couple be we just can't have that." and then she twisted her wheel and slammed the side of her kart into Nadine's.

"Oh no you didn't!" Nadine snarled, slamming her kart back into the cow's hot pink one. "I don't know what you are trying to do to them, but we're not going to let you!"

"Girl, don't get in my way or I'll whoop your ass like donkey kong in Mario kart!" the cow called shoving Nadine's kart into the railing as they ground around a turn.

"You forgot that this a team match!" Ralph shouted clipping the back corner of the cow's kart forcing it into a spin, the cow cursing as she tried regaining control but know far behind them.

Nadine took a quick look back and then shouted at Ralph, "Shit, someone really is plotting to get them!"

Ralph looked back at Nadine worried now, "We'd better catch up then and-" he was cut off as he was slammed forward in his kart."

"Oh shit! Ralph, watch out for Browser!" Nadine called as there was another hit on his rear bumper and he fought to keep control as they turned around another curve.

Ralph looked back just long enough to catch a glimpse of the Bull that was dressed like an Indian and scowling like he wanted to scalp him and his tail.

The Bull though was a damned good driver and Ralph took a few more hits and barely avoided getting spun out by the other silent and grim faced driver. Nadine swerved over intending to try forcing him into the wall but he dropped back just in time for Nadine to flash across in front of him and hit the wall herself instead.

"Nadine!" Ralph called, worried as she dropped back behind them and then growled menacingly at the bull as he came up beside Ralph and tried to force him into the wall as well.

* * *

Nadine cursed as she regained control and floored the accelerator trying to make up the distance she lost as they shot around and into the tunnel again.

"That ass! I'll teach him!" she snarled, steering around the curve at the far end of the tunnel in a much better turn than her first time and gained some ground on the two battling karts in front of her. She could see Ralphs ears pinned back as he growled at the bull who was trying again to push him into the rail.

"Sorry, hun. But I own that particular ass," a voice said only just behind her and Nadine looked over to see the cowgirl only a cart lengths behind her but with an actual gods damned lasso swinging around in the air above her horns. The sight was so unexpected that Nadine just watched as she whipped her hoof forward and the lasso hurtled through the air to land around Ralph and tighten causing his growl to break off into a startled yelp.

"Yee-Haa! caught me another one, yes I did!" The cowgirl hollered and started hauling on the line dragging Ralph's kart back and hers forward.

"Oh, you have got to be freaking kidding me!" Nadine snarled and swerved over closer to the cow girl's go-kart which was almost even with her karts rear bumper. Nadine reached out with one paw, extended her claws and sliced the rope.

"Hey! That was rented!" the cowgirl shouted back at her waving the now useless end of rope she was holding, and Nadine smile smugly.

"Should have thought of that before going after my friends, you old heifer!"

"That's an oxymoron you pussycat! And this is for the good of the city!" the cow retorted.

"Says who, you dried up old wench!"

"Says me, you alley cat"

"Milk maid!"

"Furball!"

"Broodmare!"

"Bitch!"

Nadine slammed her kart against the cows and snarled, "My mates a _wolf_ you floozy, you're going to have to do better than that!"

The cow smashed her kart back into Nadine's and their bumpers ground and screeched against each other, "You two are already mates?!" she squealed, "Congratulations! Now get out of my way kittycat!" she pushed Nadine's kart into the wall and after a rubber screeching few moments managed to pull ahead

"That's not what I meant! We're only dating!" Nadine shouted back furiously trying to catch back up.

"That's not what your face says!" The cow laughed back at her and Nadine swore loudly trying to control her blush.

The cow only laughed at her curse, "Oh, I'm sure _your cute little wuffy_ would **love** to do that to you again!"

"DON'T YOU CALL _MY_ WOLF CUTE, YOU FAT COW!" Nadine roared bashing the back of the cowgirl's go-kart as they swung around another turn.

* * *

Ralph felt like pin ball being bounced around as the other larger go-kart with its even larger occupant tried and almost succeeded in causing him to spin out again. There had been a moment where he'd thought he was done for when he'd quite literally been lassoed but the Bull seemed just as surprised as he was and hadn't taken advantage of the opportunity before Ralph had free himself. He'd have to thank Nadine for being so quick to cut the lin,e otherwise that would not have ended well for him.

Now though, he was again in trouble again. The Bull had managed to get in front of him and Ralph was jolted forward as the Bull hit the brakes and their bumpers collided, Ralph's kart's engine roaring as it tried to continue moving forward while the other kart's screeching tires left a track of burnt rubber as its breaks locked.

Ralph couldn't think of any better options so in a desperate move he shifted into reverse and threw the steering wheel all the way over. His view whirled around as his kart skidded out to the side in a backwards spin and he hurriedly turned the wheel back and threw the kart's shifter into drive.

As he regained control he couldn't help the half manic grin that appeared on his face as he floored the pedal again and shot past the kart with the bull now not only looking grim but rather annoyed; He'd had half expected to completely crash pulling a stunt like that and nearly laughed at his success.

Ralph's smile though disappeared as his kart stopped accelerating past the bulls and he looked back to see that the Bull had reached forward and grabbed the rear bumper of his kart. He had only a moment to see the terrifying smile that split the Bulls face as a shiver of fear ran up his spine.

 _Gods This is like Bogo's evil twin brother._ He managed to think right before he lost sight of that horrible smile.

Then Ralph's world was whirling as the Bull literally flung his whole kart back down the track in a flat spin as he desperately yanked on the steering wheel trying to regain control.

There was a brief moment in which Ralph actually felt thankful that they'd gone on that insane rollercoaster earlier because compared to _that_ this wasn't even making him all that dizzy. He finally got control of the spin and started accelerating again only to have Nadine and the cowgirl pass him and he pressed harder on the accelerator trying to catch up.

Ralph felt a moment of sheer terror as Nadine screamed and swerved as the cowgirl laughed and leveled a pistol at her.

"Ha! The little kitty doesn't like water does she! Well take that! And That!" the cowgirl laughed firing what Ralph finally realized with relief was a toy water pistol at her.

Nadine though did seem to find that fact all that reassuring as she desperately maneuvered and ducked, her ears flat against her head as she tried to avoid getting splashed in the face.

The cowgirl continued to cackle and shot, seeming to greatly enjoy her sport as she shouted, "Bad kitty! I warned you but you didn't listen! You've been a _very BAD kitty_!"

Ralph was just catching up to the two of them when the bull's kart slammed into the front of Nadine's and boxed her in with the cows along the wall.

Nadine shrieked as she took a direct spray from the water gun right between her eyes.

"Oh, THAT IS _IT_! You want bad kitty?! Then I'll give you BAD KITTY!" she roared as the group raced into the tunnel on their last loop. Ralph squinted at the change of light and missed seeing from exactly where Nadine pulled out her tranq pistol, but in one smooth motion she aimed and shot out one of the rear tires of the cowgirl's kart before doing the same to the bull's in front of her.

The cowgirl lost control of her hot pick go-kart and with an angry shout of, "That's Cheatinnnggggg!" crashed into the side wall. The bull though fought hard with his kart and managed to keep it mostly under control until Nadine also shot out the front tire on the same side as the blown rear tire. Ralph had to weave around the bull as he finally lost his battle for control and his kart spun out.

"That'll teach you to mess with _me_!" Nadine hollered back at them as the leading wave of the main group of go-karts crashed and bumped into the two downed karts in a loud cacophony of angry voices as the other drives tried to bump their way through the pileup.

By the time Ralph looked back forward, Nadine's tranq pistol had disappeared again.

"I have so go to figure out where she is hiding that." Ralph muttered pulling back up next to Nadine as they exited the tunnel and turned onto the final straightaway.

"You alright, Nadine?" he called over, and Nadine, her whiskers drooping a little with water that had run down her face gave him a noncommittal growl that he took for 'Okay, but pissed."

"We'd better catch up to Wilde and Hopps," Ralph said shaking his head at the whole incident, "Those two might have topped Duke Weaselton for ridiculousness but there might be others out after them as well."

"Right," Nadine growled back, "They seemed to be trying to separate us from them, they might not make a move on those two if we're there to back them up."

Then Nadine groaned, and in a dejected voice devoid of her growl said, "Ralph, we _lost_ ," she let out something close to a whine, "Judy's going to make us go on one of those crazy rollercoasters again."

All Ralph could do as they passed the finish line and came into view of a grinning bunny and fox was give his partner a reassuring, if slightly fretful smile and say, "Don't worry, we'll make it through it…" and then quietly added, "I hope."

* * *

"Okay, that might not have worked out like I'd hoped," Bess said, giving Bogo a shy embarrassed smile as their two go-karts finally puttered past the finish line, their blowout wheels keeping them at a crawl.

One of the attendants, a stag, took one look at their vehicles and waved them over to the side muttering loudly, "Knew we should have put them in the elephant sized karts, I told Herald that they were too heavy."

They got out and made their way toward the exit, but all signs of the two couples were gone.

Bogo gave a defeated sigh and patted his wife on the shoulder.

"Bess, nothing that involves Wilde and Hopps _ever_ goes the way you expect it too."

She looked up at him, with an appreciative glance and asked, "So what now? You got one of your police teams to hook up… just the wrong team… though they do also make a cute couple. Who would have ever thought a feline and a canid would fall for each other?"

"They've probably been hanging out with Wilde and Hopps to much." Bogo muttered. He sighed again rubbing his temple and then pulled out his phone, "As for what we do now…" he dialed a number, " _Now_ , I call in an old favor before we have to resort to option-J."

There was a moment before the line connected and the voice on the other end spoke immediately, sounding way too pleased.

"Mason! Good to hear from you, I was getting worried; I almost lost my bet on how long it would take you to call for help."

Bogo's hoof went up to his face, trying to forestall his imminent headache.

"Does _anyone_ not know what we are doing?" Bogo said in a defeated voice.

"Well… not everyone, I don't think Wilde and Hopps know."

Bogo heard a laugh from another voice over the call before it reprimanded the first one, "Jack! Stop teasing Mason. He's had a hard enough time trying to handle one of his teams and their romantic issues and just got blindsided by another."

"You were here watching, weren't you Savage?" Bogo said feeling his head pound.

"Oh certainly. We couldn't miss this show, now could we? Oh, and Skye wants to ask Bess if she'll teach her how to lasso like that, I must say it was rather impressive."

Bess, who'd been listening with a cocked ear, smiled and turned to speak into the phone.

"Oh absolutely! We haven't had a chance to get together in too long anyway. Why don't you two stop by next weekend? Me and Skye can have a bit of girl time and you and Mason can go do what ever you boys do."

"Sounds good to me Bess, I'm getting a bit rusty at my pool game anyway. Now back to your little love-challenged couple. I'm assuming you want us to intervene?"

"Yes, damnit." Bogo said, "I'd rather not use our option of last resort, but the plan is falling apart right now."

"Okay, we'll see what we can do. We might be able to nudge them in the right direction but I think you might have to use that option anyway, you should probably give Fru Fru Big the call to start prepping."

Bogo let out a groan, "you think it's going to take _that_."

"Anything less and it might not work," Savage replied, "Or do you want to have to deal with them like they are now for the rest of mating season?"

Bogo didn't reply. This was Wilde and Hopps he was dealing with. Savage was probably right. It was time to start preparing to use his biggest hammer. He was _not_ going to fail.

"Right. I'll give them the warning to start preparing. If you two can't get them back on track we'll use it." Bogo finally said.

"And what about Fangmeyer and Wolford? They seemed to have caught on that something is going on with those two, they wouldn't be tailing them otherwise."

"We don't have the luxury of worrying about them now, if they get caught up in it, then it's their fault." Bogo said and hung up.

Bess took his arm in hers, "Don't worry sweetie, I know you didn't want to do that to them but it _is_ for their own good." She started leading him down the street. "Now why don't we go return these costumes and grab something to eat before the concert while we let Jack and Skye have a crack at them."

Bogo let his arm creep around his wife's back as they walked. She might be overenergetic but whenever life or work seemed ready to make his head implode, she knew just what to say to make everything better.

He pulled out his phone with his other hoof and typed a short message to a certain shrew. His thumb hovered over the send button before finally clicking it.

With that done, he could relax for a bit and enjoy the day with his two most favorite things in life, his wife and Gazelle's singing.

He felt a pinch on his rear and turned to see his smiling wife.

"Ready to go shake that tush of yours to some music?" she asked, and Bogo might have let the smallest hint of a smile show on his face.

* * *

Nick leaned into Judy and whispered, "Oh carrots, that's just _cruel_ ," before laughing as he saw what ride Judy was leading them to. He knew that he was letting himself get too close to her, savoring the contact as he brushed against her, getting himself drunk off her scent, what with the sweeter than normal flavor it had picked up after the coffee shop. But he'd managed to steal a kiss from her no matter how indirect, and he'd been so giddy after that he'd laughing himself silly. He didn't think he'd laughed like that in years, maybe ever. His bunny was just too adorably cute, to funny, and too good of a hustler.

He let out another quiet laugh at the thought of what she was about to put Nadine and Ralph through.

Nadine on the other hand didn't seem to think it was all that amusing, quite the opposite in fact, though judging by Ralph's tail, he disagreed. That and Ralph was grinning like a fool.

"Judy, please. This isn't a ride, it doesn't count, pick a rollercoaster or something, _anything_ but this!" the tiger pleaded with the bunny. And Nick snickered enjoying the sight of the tiger at his bunny's mercy.

"How is this not a ride?" Judy responded mercilessly, "All you have to do is sit and _ride_ in a little boat, it can't be _that_ scary."

Nadine looked ready to plead again but Judy cut her off, "You're not going to go back on your promise, now are you?"

Nadine deflated and Nick wasn't even sure if she knew that she'd taken hold of Ralph's paw. Nick nudged Judy and whispered.

"I have to give you credit, that was brilliant." Nick grinned, "Clawhauser will go crazy if we can we can get him pictures of those two coming out of the tunnel of love."

He apparently wasn't quiet enough though because Nadine narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh no you don't," She said pointing at him, "If we are going through this… this…" she waved at the overly cliché ride complete with sparkly tunnel entrance and a line of two seater boats for different sized mammals, " _That_ , then you two are coming too."

Nick didn't know what expression was on his face but, he found he much preferred to be the one laughing and not the source of laughter… though he might make an exception for his bunny. She seemed to be getting quite a kick out of his expression as well, and her laughter did funny things to his stomach. Things that made him happy and warm and that he very much enjoyed.

He swept his tail back in a haughty manner and crossed his arms giving Judy the stink eye, "You set me up didn't you? This is payback for tweaking your nose on the go-kart track, isn't it?"

Judy broke into a fit of giggles before finally saying, "Don't worry, if you're a good fox, Finnick won't ever have to hear about this."

He could feel his ears flatten at that and Judy's giggles broke out into laughter again.

He took a moment to recompose himself before murmuring, "You sneaky sly little bunny."

Judy poked him in his side and between laughs shot back with, "dumb fox!"

Nick gave her a grin and then setting his shoulders walked forward, "Come on Carrots lets get this over with." He flicked her ear as she kept giggling glad that she was enjoying herself, "You might have to resuscitate me afterwards though. Even for a hustler like me this ride is so cheesy I might die from sheer mortification. I mean look at it! Swan boats? _Swans_? Seriously! And those lights, you can't put those kinds of lights with that much glitter paint, that's just gaudy. And the hearts!" he gave a fake shudder and Judy laughed.

She hopped up to his side and they followed after the Nadine and Ralph, the tiger looking at the tunnel in terror and the wolf trying to reassure her.

"What's wrong with hearts?" Judy asked still giggling as she put her paws behind her back and started skipping happily.

"There so many of them! Its over kill, why the best heart surgens in Zootopia couldn't save that ride with a dozen quadruple bypass surgeries!" he sniffed, and waved at the ride dismissively, "Whoever built this has no eye for aesthetics, now when my grandfather ran Wilde Times he had a real tunnel of love, one with _class_. Nothing like that monstrosity!"

Nick continued to chatter and looked down at his beaming bunny, working to hold back a smile. This had to be the single most cheesy ride ever, a ride he'd never ever want to be caught dead on, but he couldn't help the thrill that went through him at how much Judy was enjoying this. And there were certainly worse things than to be stuck on a cramped little boat in a dark tunnel snuggled up against his bunny. Maybe she'd even pet his tail again. The mere thought of that sent a delightful shiver through him and he double checked once again that his obvious attraction to Judy down south was well hidden.

If he was really lucky he might even manage to steal a kiss if he could tease her in just the right manner so she though it was only his normal friendly flirting while he played up the whole 'tunnel of love' scene.

So much for this being a joke on him, he was going to enjoy every second of this ride. The only way this could possibly be better is if Judy was actually interested in him in more than just as a friend. But he'd take what he could get and he could live happily enough with the way she was smiling and laughing next to him as they headed for the ride. That laughter, her scent, and her smile were enough, if barely, to mollify his savage primal need for her, to keep him from doing something that might make her hate him. So he'd do everything he could to keep her happy and laughing and by his side and he'd treasure every one of those moments.

* * *

Stu walked into the kitchen with his paws behind his back, though he was sure that he wasn't fooling Bonnie. He never could hide anything from her. He knew he wore his emotions on his sleeve but he couldn't help that, it was simply who he was.

Bonnie turned and saw him coming and he could see the smile she was hiding.

"Well you're back a little early today."

"Yup, finished up work in the field a little sooner than I expected…" he adjusted his hat and knew he probably looked like the same foolish fumbling love struck buck he had back when he'd first meet Bonnie, "In fact I had enough time that I decided to pick these for you." He pulled out some tulips he'd been secretly growing off in a secluded corner of one of the green houses they used for winter crops. He knew it was an open secret around the farm, probably around the town considering how gossip got around, but the smile that broke across Bonnie's face made it completely worth the doomed attempt to surprise her.

"Stu, they're lovely!" she put down he dishes she'd been cleaning and came over to take the flowers. The kiss she gave him wasn't very long or even overly passionate but it left him grinning just like the first time she'd kissed him and feeling like he had on their prom night all those years ago.

Bonnie picked out a particularly nice blossom and smelled it, "You always had a gift for growing things," she said with a smile before popping the blossom in her mouth with a delighted sound.

Stu stuck his thumbs under his suspenders and couldn't help preening a bit at her praise. "Well I do try my best for you Bon Bon. A doe like you deserves it and more."

Bonnie laughed and came over giving him another kiss, this one verging right on the edge of the PG level of intimacy they tried to keep while in view of their kits.

"Oh I think you've done a wonderful job, I couldn't be more satisfied," she smiled with a bit of a twinkle in her eye as she gave his tail a pinch, "Why just look at how big our family has grown."

"Um.. well, That's, ah… not the only surprise I ah, have…" Stu tried to say as he fidgeted with his hat again and smiled so much he could barely speak right, "Um, you, me, tonight, dinner, special… I mean I have a special dinner, just um, for us… ah…"

She kissed him on the cheek. "I was wondering what Gideon dropped off earlier today, and why a few of our older boys and girls offered to take care of dinner and the kerfluffle tonight. Why I could have even sworn that I saw you sneak in earlier headed to our room with some candles. It's almost like theirs a _conspiracy_ going on in this household, but that _couldn't_ be true; that must have just been me daydreaming about a perfectly romantic evening."

"So, um… you want… ah, dinner, I mean… will you have a special dinner tonight… with me." Stu stammered as she smiled at him.

She took another one of the tulip blossoms out, smelled it and ate it.

"Well you did bring me such lovely flowers, so I think I will accept your invitation to dinner."

Stu let out his breath in a long sigh, before saying in a relieved voice, "Oh thank Serendipity, married for thirty years and asking you out on a date hasn't ever gotten easier."

Bonnie laughed again and gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Just give me a little time for my own surprise to finish baking," she tapped one of the ovens, "I'm assuming dinner tonight is in our room?"

"And how did you guess that?" Stu asked going over to help her clean up the kitchen.

"I guess I just got _lucky_ ," Bonnie said sidling up next to him and bumping his hip as they started cleaning and drying the dishes in a practiced team effort, though the smirk she shot him as she whispered, "I hope it's not the _only_ time I'm going to get _lucky_ tonight." certainly wasn't part of their usual routine.

Stu felt like he might break his face with the smile he was sporting.

"So Bon Bon, how is _the_ conspiracy to get our little Jude the dude to finally admit to Nick how she feels about him coming along?"

"Got off to a bit of a rough start and there's some worry about them being tailed by another group, but last update said things seemed to be going well, some of the pictures of those two they sent where absolutely adorable." Bonnie stopped for a second to bring out her phone and show him some of the pictures that were sent to her by Fru Fru's mouse team trailing them.

"Never thought that a fox would make our girl so happy but I guess he'll do. They make a surprisingly cute couple." Stu murmured as he looked at all the pictures of Judy and Nick smiling and laughing with each other around an amusement park.

"Oh, don't try to act all grumbly," Bonnie teased, "you've been ecstatic that Judy finally found someone, why you were so excited to meet him at his graduation after hearing Judy talk about him on every weekly call home that you passed out when you shook his paw!"

"Well... who would have thought that out little girl would end up falling in love with a fox? But regardless, it took her long enough to find her buck or I guess tod is the right word… anyway I only passed out because I was a little nervous about _finally_ meeting our future son-in-law… and at least I didn't cry all over him."

"Nervous?" Bonnie laughed again, "I don't think that's the right word, why right afterwards you spent nearly an hour with his mother talking about wedding plans."

Stu harrumphed, "Well be that as it may, let's just hope this little plot to get them together works, I want to hold their wedding this spring, why maybe we can even hold a double wedding with her sister."

A high-pitched squeal ripped through the house as he handed Bonnie another plate to dry.

"Jessica, dear. What have I said about shouting in the house." Bonnie called in the direction of the squeal.

Their daughter in question came sprinting into the kitchen, "O M G, Mom, Dad you won't believe it!" she ran over and turned on the TV on the far counter and changed the channel to ZNN.

Peter Moosebridge and Fabienne Growley the anchors for ZNN appeared on the screen.

"Well Fabienne, it seems that the ZPD is continuing to lead the city in its push for greater interspecies cooperation now not only by promoting interspecies, and in particular predator and prey officer teams, along with their shift to full support of the M.I.I. program but by now accepting interspecies couples."

A picture of Judy and Nick both in uniform as they walked out of the ZPD's front doors while Nick was smile and gesturing and Judy was laughing, filled the screen. There wasn't anything particularly obvious about the picture but It gave the sense that the two officer's were very good friends and hinted at a possibility of something more.

"Many mammals have wondered about the ZPD's spot light team since the Nighthowler and Missing Mammals cases but recent video of officer Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde that has gone viral on the internet has turned the rumors of their involvement in a budding relationship from musings to near certainty."

The picture was replaced by a close up shot of Nick with his head in Judy's lap while their noses touched, apparently on the verge of kissing.

"However, they aren't the only interspecies couple at the ZPD,"

Two images appeared side by side, both looking like they were the portfolio pictures of two ZPD officers, one a tigress and the other a gray wolf.

"Officers Nadine Fangmeyer and Ralph Wolford, ZPD partners for over three years, have apparently been involved in a quiet courtship."

The TV screen changed again to show a picture of the two officers in regular clothes holding paws while the tigress blushed and the wolf smile delightedly.

"It is unclear how long the officers have been dating since the couple has apparently kept their relationship secret even from most of their families, though information from a few neighbors and a sibling of officer Wolford's who has apparently been helping the couple with their secret courtship, hint that the couple are now engaged and planning on moving in together."

"Most interestingly, Peter, and what has had many of our mammals here at ZNN wondering, is if Officers Wilde and Hopps are not also secretly engaged since both couples were spotted today at Zootopia's Annual Valentine's Day Festival in what looks like a double date."

"That's certainly what the photos and video we have managed to obtain suggest, so stay tuned. After the commercials, we have a special guest, Dr. Viktor Vandyke a renowned behavior specialist, who will help explain exactly what these photos and videos suggest about the current relationships of the ZPD's secret celebrity couples."

* * *

A/N

…

Operations Clock: +5.5 hours

…

WARNING:

Mission must succeed before days end.

Time Remaining: 6.5 hours

Failure is Not an Option

…

...

Secret Squirrel division Report:

Operations successful.

General ideas about pool and sports teams, etc. stolen (redacted) 'commandeered' from 'King in Yellow'

Dr. Viktor Vandyke from Starfang's Secrets 'Embrace it'

Carl & Ellie from 'Always' by Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps (Humm... where did he get those two from? *smirk*)

Ideas *cough* feline naturalists *cough* 'commandeered' from MinscLovesBoo

(additional note: we've pretty much pilfered MinscLovesBoo of all he had lying around;

Request support from Big's Polar Bear division to shake him down for more)

...

Supply Department Request:

Need immediate resupply of coffee, the damned grinch got loose in the supplies.

...

...

A Kiss, A Kiss, my kingdom for a Kiss!

– last known words of King Bogo the Destroyer of Souls, Chief of those Doomed in their battle to control WildeHopps.

…


	10. Chapter 10 - Tunnel of Chaos: Part 1

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +5.5 hours

…

Disclaimer:

"What do you mean the Grinch got into the Experimental Weapons Lab?

Yes, Yes. I know. We don't official have an 'Experimental Weapons Lab'. We have a standard disclaimer for that and the other stuff we're also not _supposed_ to have or be stealing, but are. Now what about the Lab?

Uh-huh, really… he told the guard that Cindy Lou sent him to get a glass of water _and he believed him_?! And why did you have a pirate guarding The Lab?!

I don't care if all the marines are out getting ready for the big raid on Disney, using a pirate auxiliary to guard The Lab was just Stupid! … I DONT CARE IF THE PIRATE SAID HE WAS SORRY! Now, what did the Grinch take?

Uh-huh… and what the hell is a 'Fluffthrower'?

"Sir, Sir! We've got alarms going off in the engine room."

NOT Now Petty Officer, I need to finish this call!

"But Sir, the only report we got from them was one of the engineers screaming 'Oh God, Oh God it's a Fluffy Hell' and then there was some diabolical cackling and we haven't been able to raise anyone else since!"

Deal with it Petty Officer! I'll be free in just a moment!

Now doctor what were you saying? Uh-huh, yes… designed like a Flamethrower but for Fluff? Please tell me you didn't keep something like that _loaded_ while on a SHIP!

*Phone slamming down* IDIOTS! We have enough problems trying to disarm this damned Fluff Nuke!

Um, Sir!?

What is it Petty Officer!

"Sir we've… *gulp* we've lost the engine room, fire control systems are having no effect and the damage is spreading!"

Son of a *****! I'm going to wring that grinch's neck till he turns green!

"Um… sir I think he's already green"

*Glare*

*Gulp* "Um… never mind. Ah, Sir, what do we do about the damage and the grinch?"

We trap him like the rat he is! Petty Officer, go down to the mess and get all the coffee from stores and put it on the deck. *Goes over to vault door, pulling out a key* Master of the guard your key. *master of the guard gulps and shakily pulls out another key*

"Sir *Big gulp* you're -you're not going to… to pull out *terrified voice* _The box of funnies_ "

Drastic times call for drastic measures Petty Officer, now go get that coffee and then get the hell away from the deck!

*Inserts key and warning klaxon starts sounding*

Master of the guard, insert your key please.

*second key shakily inserted, another warning klaxon starts joining first*

Turn on three.

One.

Two.

Three.

* * *

Chapter 10 – Tunnel of Chaos: Part 1

Fru Fru Big's cell phone beeped and she pulled it out with a high pitched giggle expecting another set of adorable pictures of Judy and Nicholas.

She was really glad now that her daddy hadn't iced that fox all those years ago over the incident with the skunk butt rug and Gram-mama; She'd reminded daddy that Gram-mama _had_ liked him enough to offer him one of her cannolis, and therefore wouldn't have wanted him iced. She'd done it more out of concern from gram-mama's memory than the fox truth be told… but (she let out a little delighted squeal at the thought) it had worked out for the best in the end since her best girl friend (with a space) had fallen so hard for him. And as for Nicholas, well… she didn't think she'd _ever_ seen a mammal fall so hard.

Fru Fru knew her husband loved her and she loved him too, but the way that fox loved that rabbit made her marriage seem a bit pale by comparison. The little shrew shrugged at the thought; those two were like something out of a fairytale, the kind of love that happened once in a millennia, the kind of love that mammals made into award winning blockbuster movies, the kind that inspires an entire generation to write and tell tails about them. Her marriage might be a bit less… epic, but it was a comfortable happy marriage like a warm hearth fire, and she treasured it.

Now if that fox and bunny could only stop worrying that admitting how they felt toward each other might ruin their friendship (or whatever other equally unreasonable thing was holding them back) and just do the reasonable thing and admit they loved each other, the increasing tension in the city might finally decrease. Even her daddy was getting concerned about it, which is why he'd offered her his full support with anything she needed for the little project she was involved in… that and well… she might have _also_ asked him with that hopeful look that never failed to get him to help her. She'd never understand why all the mammals were so afraid of her daddy, he was a sweetheart behind that scrunch scary face of his; from what she'd heard from her newest friend Clawhauser, his boss the Chief of police was the same way too.

That thought made Fru Fru smile. The Chief and her daddy had been bitter rivals for decades but they really were just like each other… even if they were on different sides of the law and the size chart too.

Regardless, even her daddy thought something needed to be done as it was causing some issues for the family, though that might have been just the tiniest bit her fault. She _had_ been the one to mention to Koslov that she wished they would just hurry up and get together so she could help put together the wedding and the faithful bear had taken it upon himself to try.

Daddy hadn't been too happy about the results of that. It had cost them quite a bit in lawyers' fees to get Koslov out of that mess. Though Fru Fru personally thought it had been a good try. He'd faked a robbery at a jewelry store and left clues that lead her two friends to a 24 hour style wedding chapel looking for the 'stolen' engagement rings, where just as Koslov had planned, they had gone undercover as a fake couple to get in. It probably would have worked too but it turned out that the chapel was part of a money laundering scheme being run by a smaller rival crime family. Koslov had _almost_ gotten them to kiss for an 'obligatory' wedding photo as the first part of the package deal they'd had to buy in order to sneak in, when the other family recognized the polar bear masquerading as one of their ministers, panicked and tried to kill him.

Koslov's plan had come apart after that, but he did manage to get one amazing picture of Judy and Nick in a wedding gown and tux, pulling out hidden dart pistols from each other's clothes while jumping into action. After that though, things had gone to hell in a handbasket.

In the end, daddy wasn't _too_ unhappy because shutting down the money laundering operation had put a real dent in the other family's finances and Judy and Nick had ended up saving Koslov.

The real issue was that since Koslov had failed, others lower in the family hierarchy had seen it as a chance to move up in the ranks if they could succeed where he had not. Even other crime families had gotten in on the action trying to show up the Big family by trying to succeed where they had failed.

So far there had been a couple more unsuccessful attempts including one spectacular failure by a temporary coalition of smaller families to try and force the two to move in together. They'd gained control of their apartments, increased their rents astronomically and controlled what apartment availabilities were open in an attempt to force them to move in together by sheer financial necessity. By the time the dust finally settled on that debacle, daddy and a few other families had to quickly get rid of a number of apartment properties they'd invested in or risk getting into trouble for attempted extortion and racketeering.

Now though it was _her_ turn to try and she, the private _completely_ upstanding citizen that she was, was working with a whole large conspiratorial group to make it happen, and if she could call on her daddy and his resources for help, well it wasn't like they were actually doing anything illegal… this time… mostly.

At least this time it wasn't only in the interest of the family, they _were_ doing this for the sake of the whole city.

Fru Fru flicked through the last couple of messages, most of which were pictures, including one truly adorable shot of Nick kissing Judy on the tip of her nose while they sat in a go-kart, and came to the latest message. This one though was a message through the secure app being used by the conspiracy's inner circles.

"Begin Preparations for Option J"

Fru Fru let out such a squeal of excitement that her husband came rushing into the room where she was getting changed into her dress for the concert, worried that something had happened… or that maybe she had just found out she was pregnant again. Fru Fru quickly shoed him out with assurances that nothing was wrong.

That done she hurriedly confirmed the message and started shooting rapid fire messages to Benji and a few of her teams.

Big: 'You heard!? :) '

Claws: ' XD *SQUUEEEL* Yes! Already sent the messages about possible damage to the water mains. They're being shut down until inspectors can examine them. Water will have to be diverted to the Rainforest District and Tundra Town.'

Big: ' Perfect! I **knew** J's plan was what we should have gone with from the start! Team Yeti says they already have 'Titanic' moving down from the Polar Straight and team Catcher is ready to nudge it into position.'

Claws: 'Good! I thought so too! XD, As soon as it's in place, they'll have to kick up the Bio-Wall to full power to deal with it and hold Sahara Squares climate temperature. What about the Bait and Trap?"

Big: 'Ready as soon as we need them.'

Claws: 'Humm… what about the new tail on the Target? Got any ideas on how we can deal with that if they follow them?'

Big: ' *squinty face emoji* Trap both?'

Claws: 'Works for me, they deserve it anyway for not telling anyone they were going out *huffy faced emoji* '

Big: 'ok. warned the Trap team to set up a second just in case. Think that's everything for now, you going to make it to the concert on time?'

Claws: 'Like I'd ever miss seeing the Angel with Horns? Really Fru? Really?'

Big: ' *giggle face emoji* Hey no names remember what the 'Boss' said! :P '

Claws: ' *sad faced emoji* Opps. :P Well I'll see you there. As long as things stay to the plan, announcements should be going out in just a little while on the news and we should start seeing the first signs of the effects of our meddling around the end of the concert'

Big: 'Ohhh! This is going to be so much fun! See you there!'

* * *

"So, how do we want to play this?"

The arctic fox looked over and smirked, "Oh come on, Like this is going to be any different than how things always go?" she crossed her arms, her tail swishing once behind her as she looked at him with a chastising expression, though he saw a hint of teasing in her blue eyes.

"You are going to run off ahead, get into trouble, and I'm going to bail your fluffy little tail out of the fire before it gets burnt."

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" he said, popping up his stripped ears indignantly and meeting her stare for stare. Which was a losing battle for him because her pose immediately started to distract him. The way her arms crossed on her chest with her hips angled and her long gorgeous tail swished to the side started making his eyes wander up and down her.

"Jack, You're absolutely reckless, _always_ running right up to the edge of the rules and jumping into messes, although…" The vixen said, shifting in a gracefully, fluid motion to lean over to him and whispered in his ear, "I'll admit that I like when you're a bit _reckless_ with _me_." If his ears hadn't already been standing at attention they would have been with the way she'd whispered that to him.

There was an ever so faint brush of her tail against the back of his legs and a shiver of excitement shot up through him.

Then she laughed, in that pure sweet way she had and kissed his cheek before taking his paw and starting back down the path.

Jack walked beside Skye as she hummed happily, purposefully brushing up against him and considered just how lucky he was. He would never have imagined where he would have ended up in life, with whom he had ended up with, hell he never would have imaged that winter, a time of the year he had hated with a fervored passion since he was a tiny kit would become his favorite time of the year.

Granted Skye might have had a lot to do with that last one but it didn't diminish the point. Skye was always bubbly and happy but winter brought out an _extra_ cuddly, almost frisky side to her, a side that left even an energetic hare like him hard pressed to keep up. It had been a bit of a surprise their first year together when winter rolled around and his mate, normally one for small advances or hints and planned romantic nights suddenly became a bit more… demanding and spontaneous, not that he minded at all.

He looked over at her, his beautiful vixen, his mate.

Yes. Jack thought, He was one lucky bastard.

"It's a _controlled_ recklessness, Skye. I'm _always_ in control." Jack said as they walked, smiling as she laughed again.

"No it isn't! Jack, you're flying by the seat of your pants most of the time!"

Still grinning, he let out an indignant huff, "Even if I am, I'm still in control of those pants!"

"Um-huh," Skye murmured not sounding convinced in the least, "What about the incident in the southern seas?"

Jack waved a paw nonchalantly, "I meant to sink that ship, completely _not_ an accident. Planned the whole thing, especially that part about getting us a week of time to ourselves on that deserted tropical island. Thought we could use a little vacation after that mess."

"Vacation? Planned?" Skye said skeptically, "I remember being _stranded_ on that island with _no_ supplies and our clothes in rags after swimming to shore hauling your unconscious body."

"And I remember waking up in a tropical paradise with a lovely naked vixen… just like I planned." Jack said relishing the memories.

"I was _not_ naked," Skye huffed, "I was wearing a grass skirt I made."

"for all of about 10 seconds. I clearly remember it disappearing somewhere between the second and third kiss." Jack replied in a delightedly, reminiscent tone that earned him an even louder huff.

"Well, Mr. skirt stealer smarty pants, you sure didn't seem in control when you came stumbling into my garage that first time we meet and I had to save your fluffy little tail from those thugs chasing you."

"Hey, everyone has a bit of a bad day now and then! That one's unfair!" Jack poked her rear and received a whack from her tail for it, which just made him grin more. "Anyway, I was in control of the situation enough to lead them into a trap where a beautiful mechanic was able to clobber them from behind with a whopping big wrench."

"That one wasn't even my biggest," Skye said, preening a bit.

"And then I charmed said beautiful mechanic into helping me and later into marrying me. See, perfectly in control and all to plan."

Skye laughed and shoved him, "That is _not_ what happened, you devious little flirt! I got dragged into that whole savage city mess because I saved you and doctored you back to health, _and_ I might remind you that not a single one of those pickup lines you used the entire time worked on me."

"Oh?" Jack stopped walking and crossed his arms, giving her a smug grin, "Then how do you explain _us_?"

Skye mirrored his pose giving him her own smug look, which Jack thought just made her look even more _cute_.

"Because," she leaning in toward him, "after that whole fiasco, after you got chewed out and had your ass handed to you by your superiors, for being _reckless_ I might add, with how you handled that whole mission, I got your crabby old ewe of a boss-"

"Agent U is your boss now too, you know." Jack pointed out.

"And she's _still_ a crabby old ewe, but as I was saying, I got her to tell me where you'd slunk off to so you could lick your wounded pride. I found you down at that bar and decided to cheer you up. And after spending some _normal_ time with you, not running, or fighting, or trying to save our hides, _and_ without you flirting all the time,"

"I thought you said you liked my flirting?" Jack interrupted again and Skye snickered.

"Oh, I do, though only when you flirt with _me_." she continued in a teasing tone that none the less carried a hint of a possessive growl, "but I wanted to see what you were like when you weren't in Mr. Charm mode while working a crazy mission and I decided at the end of the night that I'd give you a chance." She leaned forward and kissed the top of his head, just like she had that night right before leaving the bar, "That's why _I_ kissed you and told you to take me out to dinner the next day."

She grinned at him in a predatory manner that made his instincts sit up and take notice and his heart beat faster, but in a surprisingly different way than most hares or rabbits facing a fox grinning like that would.

" _and_ because I ended up deciding that I did like you after our dates, _I_ decided to keep _you_." She leaned forward and lightly rubbed her muzzle against his, "I'm the one that proposed after all." She said smugly, straightening back up.

Jack stepped forward and stood on his toes to give her a quick kiss, " _I_ proposed first, if you recall. You just said no, then pulled out a ring and proposed to me."

He watched as her smile widened and her cute ears perked up, "Well, I _am_ a _vixen_ after all, Jack. Foxes are very traditional and there's a proper way to do these things."

Jack rolled his eyes, though he was smiling as well, "Foxes just have silly notions about courtship." He took her paw in his and started heading back down the small walking path. "Hopps was leading them toward the far corner of the pier, we need to hurry if we're going to head them off."

The was a light feminine snicker, "You bunnies, always in a _hurry._ "

Jack could feel his ears heating up, "I'm a _hare_ , not a bunnyrabbit, if you'll recall," he folded his ears back so the light blush showing on the insides wouldn't be visible, "And lapines might be inclined to be… quick, but you haven't ever complained about that since we're also really good at going _repeatedly_."

There was another tinkling laugh followed by a pinch on his tail which sent him into a small surprised hop. He landed and shot a stern look at Skye, though his blush had now spreading to his cheeks.

She just smirked in a manner that made his face flush even more and brushed up next to him again, her tail running along the back of his legs.

"As I recall you've still got that adorably cute and soft bunny tail, Jack. I've never heard anyone call it a 'hare tail', _and_ who said I was complaining about hares being 'quick'?" Her smile grew and there was a delighted mischievous sparkle in her crystal blue eyes, "Being 'quick' has it's advantages too…" she continued her tone taking on a pleased edge, "If Hopps is taking them to where I think she is, then I might be able to show you _exactly_ why I like that you can pull a 'quickie'."

 _Oh!,_ Jack though, a bit of nervous excitement running through him despite being caught off-guard by her suggestion, but then again... it was winter after all, _Well… If we can find a secluded spot…_

Skye rubbed up against him, a bit of a growly purr in her voice as she whispered into his ear, "Think you want to be a bit… _reckless_ with me?"

Jack remembered some advice his boss had told him when he'd gotten engaged and decided now would be a good time to use it.

He cleared his throat, "Um, well… Yes, dear."

That earned him a kiss.

 _Damned good advice._

Jack was silent for a bit, trying to ponder where Skye thought they might find somewhere private enough at the amusement park, and then they came around a turn and he saw where they were headed.

His ears shot back up on their own accord and he couldn't help muttering,

"You've _got_ to be kidding me."

Skye gave a soft chuckle, before whispering right in his ear, "Nope. But only if you're up for the challenge…"

His response was automatic, "Skye, I'm _always_ up for a challenge."

Her tail swatted his as she laughed, "And that, Jack. Is _why_ you're reckless!"

He opened his mouth to retort, but then thought over it and shrugged.

"You might have a point there," he said instead, "But being that way got me you so I think it's worked out pretty well."

"And as long as being like that keeps you with me, I don't mind." Skye replied resting her muzzle on his head with a contented sigh.

Instead of responding Jack looked up and gave the underside of her muzzle a quick kiss, watching as a slow smile formed on her lovely face.

They stayed like that for a moment before her nose twitched. It twitched again and her ears snapped up and then she closed her eyes and took in a long breath, her muzzle angling around like a compass needle which finally came to rest pointing in the direction of a food stand before she took one last long inhale.

Jack just grinned watching her. He'd seen what had caught her attention and even if he hadn't there was only one thing that would make her act like that.

He felt and heard Skye's tail start to wag happily behind her and she let out a delighted groan, "I smell cherry pie!"

 _Skye's greatest weakness… cherries,_ Jack though with a chuckle, _If our enemies only knew they could stop us by dangling a piece of cherry pie over a trap!_

He smiled, looking at his fox, "Do you want to go get a piece?"

She hummed, taking another long inhale.

"grab one for me too?" Jack asked.

Her tail sped up and she kissed him before letting go and heading in the direction of the food stand, though she looked back pointing a finger at him.

"Don't you go and be _too_ reckless now Jack! You've seen that bunny's file just like I have, and if you try to pull that Mr. Charmer act on her, she'll kick you so hard you'll end up 6 feet under and then I'll have to come dig you up just so _I_ can bury you!"

Jack's grin spit his face and he called back, "And don't you go eating my piece of that pie before you get back, _sweetheart_!"

She returned his grin before turning back and Jack swore that she put a little extra sway in her hips and that stunning tail of hers. Then again she probably knew that he'd take the chance to watch her backside.

Right before she got to the stand she swished her tail, turned and with a wink, blew him a kiss.

 _Yep, she knows. She absolutely knows that she can wrap me around that tail of hers,_ Jack thought before finally tearing his eyes away from Skye and casually striding toward the line for the ride that he could now see two other interspecies couples heading for.

 _The world really has come a long way since I was a kid,_ Jack though reminiscing on the fact that almost no one in the crowd around seemed to really care too much about the odd couples. There were some stares and curious glances but two decades ago and there probably would have been insults and maybe a few hurled rocks. _Or maybe it's just that this city really is a place where anyone can be anything._

He smiled, _and recently that's thanks to two bright new stars. Now, let's see if we can give them a nudge to help out with the current issue they've run into._

He adjusted his smile taking on a causal swaggering attitude as easily as if he was putting on a different jacket and headed over to insert himself between the two other couples headed for the line.

As he neared them he considered how he wanted to approach the situation and decided to keep the charm at a mid level.

 _Skye's right, openly flirting might do the trick but that bunny would probably kick my nose in, her fox would probably go savage on me, and then my fox_ _ **would**_ _berate me for both flirting and getting my tail beat. This is going to be like walking a tight rope._

Jack managed to slip in between the pairs right before they got in line

"Class? _class_?! Nick what would you know about style or _class_!" Hopps laughed and poked Wilde, "Have you ever bothered to look at your choice in clothing!" she gestured at his shirt.

"This shirt's a classic! It's the definition of _class_." the fox retorted indignantly and the bunny laughed.

Jack took the slight pause in their conversation as a chance to interject himself.

"I'd have to agree with the lovely bunny there, she's obviously got better tastes than to pick something like that." He gestured at Wilde's shirt, making sure that his comment had just the right hint of intonation that it might sound like a possible slight against the fox rather than his shirt.

The reaction was immediate.

Both turned to look at him, the bunny's ears dropping down and her face hardening. The fox had a much more controlled reaction though Jack still caught the angry twitch to his ears and how he positioned himself in a protective manner ready to put himself between Jack and her.

"Why that pattern went out of style decades ago, Wilde!" Jack continued before either of them could say anything.

The fox's eyes narrowed slightly as Jack smiled, throwing in some extra charm which bounced off Hopps with absolutely no effect except to harden her expression more.

"I take it you know us but I don't think we've met before Mr. …" Wilde said leaving the sentence hanging.

"Savage, Jack Savage. And not in person, though I was part of the joint ZPD/ZBI mission a few months back. One of the other agents told me about how she got to meet the famous crime fighting duo of the ZPD," Jack turned to face the bunny who had started to visibly simmer at the mention of the 'other agent'

 _Well, well, what do we have here?_ He thought, _No reaction from Wilde on that, not that I'd expect one, but she doesn't seem happy at all about my mention of Skye, might be able to use that._ _Humm… poke that sore spot with her and maybe get him into a protective huff and see if we can get some of their feelings out into the open? Might work._

Jack cranked up the wattage on his smile, holding out his paw to shake, "I must say Miss Hopps, that Skye certainly was right on one part. I wouldn't know anything about judging how handsome a tod is," _I'm much better at judging how pretty and cute my vixen is after all_ , he thought to himself, watching how the bunny's ear twitched angrily and her clenched paws tightened, betraying how much that remark had hit its target, "but I must say that she didn't lie when she described how cute you are, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you." He shifted his grip on their handshake and raised her paw up to give it a kiss.

A split second after the old fashioned greeting, Jack realized he might have pushed just a _little_ too hard.

He had to take a quick step back as Hopps all but ripped her paw out of his grip, nearly clocking his nose as she did so and Wilde shifted again putting himself ever so slightly in front of his partner in a way that would have almost casually shoved Jack away if he hadn't moved. The fox's expression remained mostly neutral as he stared at him, but his eyes narrowed further, going hard like two dark green pieces of granite.

Jack had to fight back an instinctual reaction from his hindbrain that screamed _DANGER!_ And forced himself not to take another step back as the fox _not quite_ openly glared at him.

Jack more felt than heard the low, nearly silence, subsonic, and utterly menacing growl that the fox gave off in contrast to his outwardly cool and collected manner and he wondered if he was about to be in a serious fight for his life.

The fox might have looked calm, but Jack could sense that he was like a volcano that about to blow (he felt justified in making the comparison since he _had_ actually personnel seen a volcano blow and could remember the feeling of impending danger zinging through his hindbrain) Jack took another quick glance, analyzing the foxes current posture (one positioned to be ready to attack) and had to wonder if Wilde had even realized that his claws had started to come out.

" _Mr_. Savage," Hopps said, her voice immediately catching his attention and he realized that, probably just like many of the criminals that these two had faced, he'd made the mistake of focusing solely on the fox,

Another mental alarm joined the first in his mind screaming, _Pissed Female! Watch Out!_

"You're a hare so I would think that _you_ would _know_ how we bunnies _don't. like. to. be. called. Cute._ " Hopps finished in a clipped frozen tone of voice, not bothering to hide her glare at all. Her foot had also started to thump rapidly which Jack took for a very bad sign.

"My apologies," Jack said backtracking a bit, with a less flirtatious smile.

 _Careful what you say Savage so you don't step on any landmines_ , _these two are wound far tighter than we even imagined,_ he thought to himself.

He gave a small nod and grin, "Pardon me if I'm a little forward there, my mother always did say that my manners would get me into trouble, especially when it came to pretty girls."

Jacks attention shifted back to the fox again, as his growl became audible for a split second. Wilde stifled it, quickly recovering from the flicker in his control, but as he took in another breath, the fox's nose twitched. A look of momentary confusion flickered across his face, joining the territorial protective rage simmering in his eyes.

Wilde took another small sniff, his eyes widening minutely for a moment as something seemed to click together in the fox's mind and then his glare shifted to something closer to neutral, matching his face's expression and his body relaxed from a ready to attack posture to just moderately protective.

 _Finally picked up on Skye's mark, well that makes things easier since he isn't liable to attack me anymore. Now if I can just get Hopps to trip up and give Wilde some sort of signal-_

He looked back over at the bunny and swallowed, feeling like she might actually succeed in burning holes through him with only her eyes. She looked far more ready to attack him than to cling to Wilde.

 _And accomplishing that goal might be a bit harder than I thought._

* * *

Skye's tail wagged in delight as she popped the last piece of her pie slice into her mouth and savored the delicious taste of the cherry filling. The still warm morsel seemed to melt on her tongue, exploding into a flood of flavor that nearly had her groaning in pleasure. She eyed the second piece on the plate contemplating how she might steal some of it without Jack knowing.

 _Maybe if I just nibble the edge…_

She turned her head looking at the slice from different angles, figuring out just were to start nibbling when something tweaked her danger sense and she looked up at where she'd been heading, only to let out an exasperated huff.

 _Seriously, I left him alone for what, one minute?! Maybe two!? And he's already about to spark off a fight!_

"Maid Marian, save me. Sometimes I don't think that buck has the brains given to a baby duck!... though his cute little tuft of tail does make up for a lot..." She watching as his tail twitched in a nervous tick that was one of his only tells as he tried to figure out how to avoid getting slugged by the bunny that looked madder than a stirred hornets' nest.

All the other mammals around the small group where watching them, though Skye noticed that the other ZPD couple, the tiger and wolf officers, while watching like this was a Saturday TV drama special had taken a careful step back as if wanting to be out of the way if the bunny's fuse on her temper blew.

"hummm… guess I should probably intervene." Skye mumbled and then looked back down at the remaining piece of cherry pie. Coming to a decision, she picked the piece of pie and took a large bite out of the tip of the slice and then headed over.

 _That's payment for saving his fluffy butt again_ , she justified as she chewed and let out another delighted sound, _after all, I can't have that bunny putting my mate in the hospital right now, we've got a whole romantic evening planned and I need him in working order._

She swallowed, savoring the last of the flavor from her stolen bite of the wonderful cherry pie before stepping up to the group.

"Hey Jack, thanks for holding a spot in line for me," she turned to face the fox and bunny and gave a quick happy wave with her free paw, and tried not to squeal too much as she said excitedly, "Hey! Haven't seen you two since the flying dingo debacle! How have you been Judy on Duty and Slick Nick?" she gave the fox who was now wearing a small smirk a wink. "Given Chief Bogo any more migraines lately?"

"At least three confirmed cases and one of him whacking his head against his desk saying 'Why me?! Why me?!'." Nick shot back, smirk now on full display. "Still holding the lead right now, Delgado's only got two."

Skye giggled, "You all give the Chief such a hard time."

"It's because we all like old Buffalo Butt," Nick said easily, some pride showing in his voice as he continued, "Besides, it would take a hell of a lot more than that to really bring down our Chief." He snickered and then leaned forward to waving for Skye to do the same. She complied leaning in for him to stage whisper conspiratorially, "We've got a plan going between everyone next week, we're going to make sure that everything runs smooth as clock work, make sure absolutely _nothing_ goes wrong. Since he's so used to things going haywire, everyone is taking bets on how long it will take the Chief to freak out because things are running _too_ well. I've got my money that he cracks on day two."

Skye let out a belly laugh.

"You all are just too mean!" she giggled, and then snickered, "I've _so_ got to try that out on my boss."

Still giggling lightly, Skye looked over to Judy, "So are you in on this sly little plot as well Judy?"

The normally overly enthusiastic bunny was just staring at her and Nick with a blank vacant look, like she'd been sucker punched and couldn't draw in any air, not to mention that her ears were drooping so much that they looked ready to fall off.

Skye cocked her head, looking at her with a bit of worry. She'd hadn't worked with Hopps for very long during the joint department case but the spirited and tough little bunny hadn't seemed like one that would ever just freeze up like that.

"Judy?" she asked again,

The bunny's frozen expression seemed to crack like a sheet of ice right before it breaks.

"oh… ah, Skye… yes, nice to see you here… too…" Judy mumbled almost drunkenly, her eye's glossy and a bit unfocused.

Wilde was now looking at Judy, worry and alarm clearly written across his face.

"Judy? You aright?" he reached over putting a paw on her shoulder to steady the bunny as she started to sway on her feet. Wilde's alarm grew and he started speaking faster and faster, "Carrots? Are you not feeling well? Something you ate? Was it that last rollercoaster? You're looking a little pale there! We can go sit down, take a break until you feel better. Sound like a plan?... Carrots?... Judy?" that last part came out as a distraught whine.

Judy didn't quite seem to hear him and looked up past him toward the ride the line was for, and mumbled, "Ride… Nick… Skye…" She blinked once, then again, her eyes looking a bit watery.

After a moment and a shaky breath, she finally focused on Wilde, putting on a forced smile.

"um… sorry Nick, I just…" she looked past him in the same direction she had before and her smile faltered, "just… felt a bit dizzy there. I think I need to get some water. Use the restroom. Here you stay here and go on the ride, I'll… just meet up with you after…"

She turned to leave but Wilde stopped her looking almost frantic, "No, I'll come with you. You weren't looking very good there, Judy. What if you pass out, what if you-"

"Nick." She removed his paw from her shoulder, which only distressed the fox even more, "I'll be fine, you can't come into the women's restrooms anyway. Just stay here and..." she glanced at Skye, "go on the ride… I'll… I'll see you after."

"Wilde," Skye spoke up getting both his and Hopps's attention, "I'll take her, you stay here with Jack and we'll be right back."

"No! No!" Judy said sounding a bit frantic herself now and waving her paws, looking back and forth between her and Wilde, "That's alright, I'll be fine, you two both just stay here."

Skye gave a small delicate snort, "Well Jack can't go with you to the restroom either, cute as he is, he's certainly male. Now, no more arguments, Wilde's right, you looked really pale there, someone should go with you." She turned around to Jack and handed him the plate with the remaining piece of pie. "Hold this, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Jack took the plate then picked up the slice of pie looking at the bitten off tip and then back at her. He raised an eyebrow and ear questioningly in a way that made her giggle.

She smiled at him, and leaned down to give him a quick kiss on the lips before saying, "Couldn't resist."

"I'll happily trade you the rest for another kiss." Jack said, grinning back at her.

She kissed him again, "Save me the last bite for when I get back, okay?" Jack smiled and kissed her back.

"Sure. I'll save you two bites."

Skye turned back around, ready to head off with Hopps and make sure she really was alright, but the bunny was staring at her with her mouth hanging open, her eyes wide as saucers, and her nose twitching at a thousand miles an hour.

Skye cocked her head and frowned, "What?"

Judy's nose froze, going perfectly still and then her mouth flapped like a door with a broken hinge. After a few moments of only squeaks coming out she stopped and looked between her and Jack who was nibbling on the slice of cherry pie as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Judy's paw came up pointing at her

"Y-you," Judy squeaked and then pointed to Jack.

"H-h-him,"

Skye's ears perk up as Judy pointed back at her, but she seemed to run out of words.

"Yes, we're together." Skye said to the shocked bunny, "Been married for almost four years now," Judy's jaw dropped again, swinging like an open gate door in the breeze, and Skye still frowning said, "I thought you knew?"

The bunny didn't say anything but judging by the way her eyes bulged, Skye guessed she hadn't. "Wilde obviously knew, he didn't tell you?"

Now the does eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head and she whipped around to look at the other fox by her side, who while not as distraught as he was a few moments before when Judy seemed ready to collapse, now looked rather confused as Hopps whipped her head back and forth between them a few times.

She finally stopped, staring right at Wilde, her ears snapping up and then down, and then to a sort of halfway point as her face worked through a myriad of emotions.

Finally, she seemed to get control of her voice.

"You _knew_?" she finally said, almost shouting.

Wilde blinked a bit startled, and finally said, "Um… Yes?"

When that didn't seem to satisfy her, he continued, "I knew she was mated when we first met her during the joint department case, could smell a scent mark on her. Didn't realize she was mated to him," he gestured at Jack, who seemed happy enough to just munch away on the pie slice like there was nothing more interesting going on, "until just a minute ago when I smelled her mark on him."

"But I thought that… but you… But You Flirted With Her!" Judy finally shouted out as if the world was coming apart and didn't make sense anymore, "I've _never_ seen you flirt with any other vixen!" And then Judy's eyes went wide again and she looked at Wilde with an expression of growing pity.

Nick sniffed looking like she'd asking why two plus two was four, "I only flirted with her _because_ she was clearly mated, I do have some manners Judy."

Whatever thought had been going through the bunnies mind apparently shattered leaving her stunned and confused. She looked like a puff of air could knock her over.

" _WHAT?!_ " she shouted coming out of her momentary stunned daze, yanking on her ears, "NICHOLAS That Makes **_NO_** SENSE!"

Skye put a paw up to her muzzle covering her sudden grin and giggle, Wilde looked completely perplexed but Skye was pretty sure she understood what was going on now.

She giggled again and Hopps looked at her as if she, Wilde and the whole world were going _Mad_.

"You thought he liked _me_?" Skye giggle from behind her paw.

" _He_ said he _liked_ a **_foxy lady_** and you're the only vixen he's _ever_ flirted with! _What was I supposed to think_!" Hopps shouted pointing at her, the bunny's ears vibrating with her confused frustration and Skye fell to the ground laughing.

Skye looked up at Hopps trying to bring her laughter under control as she rolled on the ground and saw Hopps looking at her like she'd lost all her senses. The bunny turned to look questioningly at Wilde as if he might be able to explain her sudden insanity, but the red fox wouldn't meet her eyes, and was instead looking down at his feet, blushing _so_ hard it was even visible through his russet fur.

As Judy turned, it brought her back into view where Skye could see the heart shaped sticker again, and she lost it, falling back and grabbing her stomach, howling in laughter so hard her ribs felt like they might break. Hopps turned back around to stare at her, but as she turned around others in the line and street that had stopped to watch the spectacle started to laugh.

Hopps whipped around to stare at them like they were _all_ going insane, but as she turned again, more mammals broke into laughter.

Jack still nibbling away at the pie piece leaned over Skye, looking down with the tinniest smirk and said to her as she once again tried to regain control of herself and stop laughing, "Told you foxes' notions of courtship are silly."

Skye had almost gotten her laughter fit under control, but broke out into a set of uncontrollable giggles at his smirk.

Jack grinned and nibbled the pie slice a bit more before gesturing back over to where Hopps was spinning around, looking from laughing mammal to laughing mammal and now clearly starting to get _mad_ and said, "You want to finish or should I step in?"

"No." Skye managed to gasp between her giggles and attempts to breath, "No… *giggle* I've got this *giggle* *gasp* *giggle*"

"You sure?" Jack asked again offering a paw to help her up, which she accepted.

"Oh yes," she said, finally starting to get her herself under control as she stood up and Jack brushed some dust off of her, "This *giggle* needs a delicate touch and you Jack, *snicker* are akin to using explosives."

He smiled broadly, kissed her and then pointed her toward Hopps, "Better go disarm that bunny bomb then."

Skye giggled one last time, whipped away some tears with her paw and then went over to the bunny who was now frowning and glaring at the mammals around her, shouting " _What's so carrot picking funny_?!"

Hopps turned to Wilde desperately, snapping "Nick! A little help here _please_?!" but the poor fox only glanced up at her, blushed even more, though Skye wouldn't have believed that was possible if she hadn't seen it herself, and then looked back at his feet, his tail wrapping around his legs and his shoulders hunching in.

" _Nick?_ " Hopps shouted in a hurt confused voice.

Skye laid a paw on her shoulder, "Okay, okay. Calm down for a second."

Hopps whipped around to face her, " _Calm Down?!_ How can I calm DOWN?! Everyone is going Bug Freakin Nuts!"

Skye shook her head keeping her smile under control so as to not irritate the simmering bunny, "Hopps, come on, let's go take that bathroom break, get some water and maybe I can explain."

She gently herded the angry and confused bunny out of line and toward some public restrooms at the end of the street. She looked back long enough to catch Jack's eye before looking at the huddling fox in a 'take care of him' gesture. Jack smiled and nodded once, and she turned back to shepherding the bunny who now looked about ready to cry.

* * *

Jack watched as Skye, acting more like a mother hen than a vixen, ushered Hopps away, the bunny looking like she was going into a state of shock. Watching Skye mother the bunny brought up a slew of feelings that he had never thought _he'd_ have, but had none the less been becoming more common over the years since he'd found his mate.

She was pretty, (more like absolutely stunning or so he thought), vivacious, and sweet with a bit of Amazon like independence and toughness mixed in. But one thing he'd started noticing more and more recently was that she would make a great mother. She had that perfect caring way with other mammals and kits loved her. They had talked about the subject long ago but had decided to shelve the topic since running around the world, jumping from one dangerous mission to the next with only occasional breaks, hadn't been very conducive to starting a family, nor had he ever really considered himself much of a family mammal. Now though… well, it might be just about the right time for them to dust off that particular shelf. Their boss would probably throw a fit about it, but they could probably keep U from going ballistic if they promised that they weren't retiring. It wasn't like there weren't other jobs that needed doing in the ZBI's ZI6 department or that they couldn't take the occasional mission.

Jack smiled, deciding to bring up the topic later tonight and with a shake of his head, stopped watching Skye's elegant tail as she and Hopps headed for the restrooms.

He turned back to see Wilde still looking like he just wanted to fold in on himself and disappear. He had slunk over to the side of the line to get some measure of privacy from the other mammals but the other officer couple had gone over to him, though whether it was to rib him or reassure him Jack wasn't sure. Probably some of both, he concluded.

"Nick, you sly dog," the Wolford said, grinning the whole time as he nudged the fox. "That was brilliant bud, how long do you think it'll take her to pick up on it? I mean you could have just _told_ her you love her; that seems to have worked out pretty well for me." the wolf grinned up at the tiger who blushed and pointed a finger back at him.

"Ralph! That's perilously close to breaking our agreement, don't you go making me revoke your probationary status!"

Wolford's tail, despite the reprimand, only wagged faster than it had been before.

Jack made sure that he had a suave smile on and cleared his throat.

"You've got your eye on quite the firecracker there don't you Wilde? Wouldn't have thought that the Big Bad Fox would have fallen for the cute little bunny instead of eating her up."

Nick's head snapped up and he glared, "Like your one to talk, Savage. You seem to have willingly thrown yourself into the fox's den to get eaten."

Jack smirked, "Yep, and haven't regretted a single moment of it either. Just nice to be able to throw stones at someone else who lives in a glass house too."

Having succeeded in breaking the fox out of his stupor, Jack turned to the other two, looking right at the wolf and in an exaggeratedly excited voice said, "Oh my goodness, if it isn't Miss Ramsbottom!"

The wolf scowled, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.

"Mr. 'Humper." He said causally, "I thought we had agreed to never speak of that again."

Jack threw up his paws, though he was careful not to spill the pie off the plate, "Mr. Thumper, _Th_ -um-per." He said exasperatedly, "Why did everyone insist on calling me _humper_?!"

"Oh, I don't know," Wolford said, "Maybe because you were a _pimp_."

Fangmeyer was looking back and forth between them and even Wilde was paying attention.

" _What_ are you two talking about?!" Fangmeyer asked, and Jack grinned.

"You know of the joint ZPD/ZBI case a few months back?"

"Sure, I was part of the SWAT Team that helped raid the trafficking ring that Hopps and Wilde helped discover. What about it?" The tiger said, giving him a look that said he'd better get to the point.

"Well we needed to get someone into the trafficking rings inner circle to get the evidence to green light the raid. Turns out their leader, that insane little dingo, had a particular… fetish. I suggested a plan and Bogo said he had the perfect mammal for the job, said the officer in question had a lot of experience doing undercover work." Jack pointed over at Wolford with a growing smirk.

Wolford huffed and cut in, "The Chief had me go undercover in that fake rams disguise with Savage. We got the info, you participated in the raid, and Hopps, Wilde and the other ZBI agent nailed the leader when he bolted trying to use his escape plan in that freaking blimp. End of story."

Fangmeyer was looking at the wolf, a small smile breaking across her face like she could smell something juicy he was trying to hide.

"That can't be _all_ there is Ralph," she leaned in toward him, grinning now, "Your ears are going pink."

The wolf quickly folded his ears back but the tigress grin just got wider, "So there _is_ something more!"

"What he left out," Jack said continuing despite the evil eye Wolford shot at him, "was that he went wearing that ram disguise and dressed in drag. Did a whole little pole strip tease routine to keep their leader distracted while I got the evidence." There was a snicker from Wilde while Fangmeyer covered her muzzle with both paws, her eyes going wide as she stared at Wolford, who took one looked at her delighted face and blushed violently.

"I must say," Jack added, "It was quite the… athletic performance."

"Oh shut it, Mr. ' _Humper'_!" Wolford barked as the tigress tried to stifle a giggle behind her paws.

"Where on earth did you learn to _pole dance_?" Fangmeyer asked still trying not to laugh.

"Wait," Wilde cut in, "was that what the 'Special training' Clawhauser gave you? Sheesh, I know Benji brags that he knows _every_ move that could possibly be danced to Gazelle's music but… actually, now that I think about it, He probably would go that far."

Jack watched the fox but he seemed to have recovered remarkably fast from his own embarrassment, though he wasn't sure if it was an act or not. He shrugged to himself and continued watching as Wilde smirked broadly, saying, "Did Benji teach you your 'special dance moves' to 'Try Everything'?"

The way Wolford tried to stammer a denial screamed 'YES!' and the tigress started to giggle uncontrollable, her shoulders shaking.

"Oh," she snickered, still giggling, "Ralph pole dancing to 'Try Everything' *giggle*, I'd _so_ pay to see that."

Ralph's head snapped around to the tiger his eyes a bit wide, a slightly shocked expression on his face, and the tigress's giggles abruptly stopped.

"I um…" a blush was visibly racing it's way along the white stripes of her face, "didn't say that out loud, did I?"

"Well," Jack finally said after a few moments, snapping the tiger and wolf out of their game of chicken to see who could stare at the other and blush more, "Why don't you two go ahead on the ride," he gestured to the now short line, "I think Wilde would rather wait for his 'foxy lady' than go on the ride with me," Jack shot Wilde a smirk, "he's not really my type anyway, being a _red_ fox and all."

Wilde put on a haughty look, saying back, "Why would I ever settle for going with you? The worlds _cutest_ bunny promised to go with me."

Jack snorted, "Do you even know what that word means to bunnies, Wilde?"

"Yes. Yes, I do." He said, smirking, though he also gave a wistful, worried look in the direction where Skye and Hopps had gone.

Wolford and Fangmeyer had looked at him and then Wilde and seemed to be having some sort of silent debate with each other that involved a few still concerned glances at Wilde.

Jack rolled his eyes again, "If you two want to stay that's fine too, I'm sure Fangmeyer would like to hear all the little juicy details about that dance."

Wolford actually yipped, his ears snapping back and he grabbed Nadine's paw and all but dragged her toward the ride.

One of Jack's ears swiveled around as Wilde chuckled.

"Please tell me you have pictures or video of that." He said, smirking in the direction of the wolf.

"Now you aren't looking for blackmail are you Mr. Wilde?" Jack asked turning to face him.

"Of course not!" he replied sounding affronted, "I just wanted to get Nadine a gift for her upcoming birthday."

"Sure you do," Jack laughed, then looked down at the last bite of pie on the plate in his paw. His mate did love cherries, and he liked seeing her happy. He glanced back at the food stall she had gotten it from by a small food court area set up with tables chairs and a few TVs where mammals were relaxing, eating there food. Jack gestured in its direction.

"Mind if we go wait over there, I want to get another slice of pie for Skye."

"Oh, sure." Wilde shrugged, tearing his gaze back from where it had wondered to look back in the direction the girls had gone. There had been the faintest look of longing and anguish but he hid it almost instantly behind a cut and paste smile, before asking, "Do they also have blueberry pie over there?"

"Only one way to find out," Jack said turning to walk in the direction of the food stall, and after on more glance toward the restrooms, Wilde followed.

* * *

Skye watched as Hopps splashed some water on her face from one of the lower sinks in the bathroom and then grab some of the paper towels from the dispenser next to it to whip away the water and tears.

"Okay Skye," Hopps started, taking a deep breath, "You said you were going to explain. So please explain, because **none** of _that_ ," she waved her paw in the direction of the door and where they had come from, "Made **_any_** sense!"

Skye was glad to see that the usually upbeat and energetic bunny was starting to recover, bouncing back after her cry. The vixen could sympathies with Hopps after understanding the assumption she'd been under; the whole scene wouldn't have made sense to her. The bunny though, true to her nature, seemed ready to get back up and charge right back into the fray as she continued speaking, now pacing back and forth before the row of different sized sinks.

"Why was everyone laughing?! What did they see that was so funny and _Nick_! I've never seen him act like that, he _never_ losses his cool! What he said about manners and flirting made no sense but it wasn't _that_ funny, and that's just not like Nick to let others laughing at him get to him." Skye couldn't hold back a small grin as she watched. Even off duty, Hopps seemed to naturally drop into a detectives thought process. Skye sat and watched as she thought out loud, trying to piece numerous questions and bits of information together into something that made sense, "He's been acting a bit strange today. And there was that look before. But it _is_ fox mating season. _But_ I thought he like _you_." Hopps gestured at Skye, and the vixen grinned more because the bunny didn't seem to notice just how clearly she was broadcasting her emotions and jealously. "But _if_ he doesn't-" her ears dropped.

"He doesn't." Skye cut in confirming what the Hopps was puzzling with out loud because the bunny had sounded rather dubious about it.

Hopps stopped and turned to her. "And that's what doesn't make _sense_!" she said exasperatedly, "Everything points to him liking you! He _told_ me that he'd fallen in _lo-love_ ," she almost chocked up there for a second but continued, "...with a vixen though she wouldn't ever take him, he's only flirted with _you_ , and he's been acting moody almost depressed despite how he tries to hide it and then I find out that the _one_ vixen he's ever flirted with is already mated! All the pieces fit! So why do you think he _doesn't_ like you? I mean seriously! How does only 'flirting because your mated' make _any_ sense?!"

"Hopps, I think you're making some conclusions based off of wrong assumptions." Skye cut in because the bunny seemed about to boil over again.

All the energy seemed to go out of her, like air leaving a sail and she leaned forward thumping her head on the wall with her ears falling down, completely limp.

"Then would you _please_ explain before _I_ go crazy." She said and thumped her head against the wall again, before adding as an almost after thought, "And its Judy please, not Hopps," the bunny thumped her head against the wall again then stopped her brow furrowing, and shot a questioning look at Skye, "Wait a second… You asked us right at the start to call you Skye but I clearly remember your badge saying your last name was _Frost,_ not _Savage_ and," her eyes narrowed nose twitching, "I don't see any ring on your paw, and now that I think about it neither did _Savage_! What kind of hustle are you trying to pull?"

 _Smart bunny,_ Skye thought still grinning. _She's got a good eye for details, still working under wrong assumptions though._

"No hustle, Judy." Skye said smiling warmly and pulling a thin necklace out from under her shirt, on the end of which dangled a ring, "Because of our role in the ZBI, Jack and I end up working a lot of… 'undercover missions' let's say. We don't advertise that where married because it could make our jobs harder if it was common knowledge. That's one reason among others, that our boss suggested that I keeping my original badge with my maiden name on it and also the reason why I ask mammals to call me by my first name, I don't really care to be called by my maiden name," she frowned but shrugged, "Damn old ewe was right though; Having mammals assume the wrong thing has come in handy a few times. And with a little extra deodorizer, unless we're near someone with a really good nose they won't pick up on our sent marks either."

Judy's frown deepened though she was no longer looking at Skye distrustfully and muttered a quick apology. The vixen smiled again as the bunny began pacing her nose twitching and burst out agitatedly, "It. just. _doesn't._ make. sense!"

"Maybe not to you but it would to any fox." Skye said in response.

Judy froze and turned to her even more confused.

"What do you know about fox courtship?" Skye asked.

"Not much… Nick's never really talked about it." Judy answered her frown deepening, "It's not like it can really be all that different from every other species."

Skye raised her paw, waffling it in the air, "Yes and no. All the basics are pretty much the same. But," she raised her finger, "There's a few key differences, and foxes tend to be… very tradition." Skye shrugged, "It's pretty hard to go against the kind of instincts that underlie those traditions."

"So Nick _wasn't_ joking when he said he only flirted with you because you were already mated?" Judy asked still seeming to have a hard time processing that.

"Not at all." Skye said with a huge grin watching the bunnies face as she tried wrapping her mind around that… and apparently failing.

"You're going to have to walk me through that one." She finally said going over to the bench Skye was sitting on across from the sinks and flopping down beside the vixen seeming completely exhausted.

Skye thought for a moment before speaking, "You know how most other mammals think bunnyrabbits and hares are always ready to go 'jumping' off into bed? And not being picky about whose bed they land in either?" Judy nodded, "So why do mammals buy into that stereotype when mated lapines are monogamous?"

"Because," Judy blushed a little, "we have high sex drives and before we marry, lapines aren't shy about…" Judy waved a paw around, " 'playing the field' while looking for their mate. Mammals see that and some of the larger bunny families and think we rut all the time and just about anything too!" her tone had gotten a little peeved at the end.

"Annoying isn't it?" Skye said understanding the bunny's sensitivity to the topic.

"Extremely. Almost as much as being called 'cute'," Judy said, then sighed, "No one ever seems to pay attention to the part about how bunnies marry and form mate bonds for life." She looked at Skye, "but what does this have to do about foxes?"

"Well, stereotypes about lapines come from quirks of your culture that others focus on without bothering to consider the whole picture. The same is true with foxes." Skye said with her own shrug, "What' the common perception about foxes?"

"Everyone says that canids mate for life, but the same is true for lapines with our mates. That and you all get territorial and mood in winter because its 'mating season'."

Skye laughed at that, "Okay, that's true for the most part, though in some cases maybe more literal, especially for foxes than other canids, than you're probably thinking."

"How so?" Judy asked looking a little intrigued but Skye waved her paw.

"Not the point, what have you heard about vixens?" she said, still giggling a bit at the bunny's notions. She still remembered Jack's open mouthed and shock expression when she'd corrected _his_ assumptions, and the memory almost made her laugh out loud.

 _She can get Wilde to explain to her the difference between choosing a partner and becoming life-mates and '_ _ **mating**_ _for life'._

Her question though, had Judy stammering and blushing before she finally responded while not quite looking her in the eye.

"Um… well… the stereotype is that vixens are… forward and a little… promiscuous?"

This time Skye did laugh, "You mean that most use 'vixen' to mean a sly, licentious, wanton, female that will push themselves on any male they want and even steal someone's husband out from under them?" Judy nodded and looked down awkwardly not seeming to know how to respond to that, so Skye reached over and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it Judy, we get used to it, and it's no worse than how mammals use 'weasel' to mean sneaky thieves or 'rat' to mean a backstabber."

"That doesn't make it right." The bunny said her ears limp again.

"No, it doesn't." Skye said a bit more soberly, "but you're not going to be able to change those stereotypes."

The bunny's shoulders firmed, her head coming up, "And how do you know that I can't?" she said determinedly, "You never know unless you try. I might not be able to make others stop thinking like that but I can give others an example by _not_ being like that!"

Skye blinked looking at the resolute little bunny next to her. A slow smile spread across her face and then she leaned over and gave Judy a quick hug.

"You're right, that was silly of me. You never do know unless you try, and maybe two examples will work better than one."

Judy might be overly idealistic and optimism but Skye liked her all the more because of it and she thought she understood a bit better why Wilde had fallen so hard for this delightful little rabbit.

She leaned back still smiling at the gray bunny, "But back to what we were talking about, have you ever considered how vixens got that stereotype?"

Judy shook her head, though the hug seemed to have cheered her up as her ears were no longer downcast, "Not really."

"Well, it's because of some quirks with foxes and our culture and our way of approaching courtship." Skye said gesturing at herself, "You weren't wrong before to say that foxes are territorial, _particularly_ about our mates, because we are. Even more so during winter, more than most other predators. It's got a bit to do with our instincts, and that has, in turn, shaped our culture too. So for a fox, courting a potential mate is a really big deal."

Judy looked back at her, confusion write large across her face, before saying exasperatedly, "But Nick flirts and teases _all_ the time! He does it with me, he did it with you, he does it with other mammals too!"

Skye had to hide a grin again at how much irritation slipped into Judy's tone as she mentioned Wilde flirting with her and others. Foxes it seemed weren't the only ones that got territorial over perspective mates.

"Wilde isn't really flirting with me," Skye said, allowing her grin to break through, "teasing yes, but it's not really _flirting_. He knows that I'm taken, that there isn't a snowballs chance in Sahara Square of me ever leaving my mate for anyone else and that makes me safe to tease." Judy was still frowning so Skye continued, "Judy, think back over all our interactions together. We've traded quips, teases, and such but have you ever noticed how the only time he ever touched me was to shake my paw the first time we met? He makes very sure to leave me my personal space and not accidentally touch me, because _that_ , unlike his teases, _would_ be flirting."

Skye's grin gained a bit of menace, "and let's just say that neither I or my mate would _take kindly_ to such an advance."

"Huh…" Judy mumbled thinking to herself, "I never really thought much about it before, but I've never seen Nick do anything more that flirt verbally with girls."

 _Oh, I've seen him physically flirt with_ _ **one**_ _girl,_ Skye had to work hard to hold back a giggle this time, _He's practically been glued to her side and hanging all over her!_

"Foxes, are very sensitive about touching and physical contact," Skye continued, trying to keep her amusement under control, "because it's crossing into someone else's territory, foxes normally only let a few special mammals such as their family touch them. Between a fox and a potential mate though, physical contact is a pretty serious advance, so touching another or letting themselves be touched by someone they're considering as a potential mate is some _serious_ flirting."

"I kind of wish that was more the case for lapines too." Judy grumbled her ears angling back in an irritated manner, "I didn't really like how Savage kissed my paw."

Skye's head whipped around to look right at Judy, her ears going flat and snapped, "He did _what?!_ "

Judy recoiled slightly, but recovered quickly, "Oh… ah, no. He just ah, kissed my _paw_ ," a growl slipped out past Skye's control and Judy hurriedly continued, "Just in a sort of old fashioned greeting. That kind of thing isn't too uncommon among bunnies."

 _Damnit, Jack!_ Skye thought trying to control herself, knowing she was being a bit unreasonable, _I might give you permission to flirt when we're on mission, but this isn't_ _ **that**_ _kind of mission!_ Skye closed her eyes for a second and took a few deep breaths, it had only been her paw after all, but that was still pushing it, especially for this time of year. He _knew_ how she got during winter. Skye resolved to remind her buck that he was **_hers_** as soon as was practically possible.

"-sure he didn't mean anything by it. Why my Pop-pop is always going on about how bucks now-a-days don't even know what chivalry means."

"It's alright Judy." Skye said waving her paw to cut off the doe as she tried to reassure her, "I know he didn't mean anything by it, I'm just…" she sighed, "as you said, foxes can get moody and overprotective during winter. Though Jack should _know_ that." She added just a touch sharply.

 _And I'll make sure he remembers it this time too!_

There was a moments silence which Judy finally broke.

"Skye, I'm… I'm sorry I made such a scene back there." Judy said her ears down, "I was just shocked to find out you were married because I thought Nick was in love with you. And that whole part about him flirting with you _because_ you where mated, well I can see how everyone else might have found that funny especially with how I made a fool of myself. Even Nick was embarrassed at how I acted."

"Oh honey, there's no need to apologize," Skye said giving Judy a one-armed hug to try cheering up the doe, "He wasn't embarrassed about how you acted; He was embarrassed because you told everyone there that he was ears over tail in love."

"Really?" Judy said looking up and then smiled, looking at Skye's arm, "and I though you said foxes were picky about who they touched."

Skye smiled back, "I said they only let special mammals like family touch them, and between us girls, good friends count as special, plus I know you have no interest in me or my mate so-" Skye was cut off as Judy hugged her back.

"Thanks Skye," she said her voice filled with emotion, "I really needed a friend right now."

"Judy! Judy, a little too tight there!" Skye wheezed out, patting the bunny on the back.

Judy gave a small laugh and let go, smiling now.

"Sorry, Nick keeps telling me that I could out hug a bear." She sobered up a bit after mentioning her fox's name, then looked back at Skye a bit nervously and twisted her paws in a hesitant manner, "If he wasn't in love with you though, t-then who is it? I've never seen him flirt with other vixens."

Skye kept her smile from breaking out into a full smirk, " ** _You_** know him better than I do," she said poking the bunny in the shoulder, "and you've got the makings of a good detective. I'm sure you can figure it out."

"I've been trying to," Judy said exasperatedly and then her ears dropping back down dejectedly, and she mumbled so quietly Skye almost didn't hear her, "Though I'm not sure I really want to know."

Skye decided that it might be best if she simply acted like she hadn't heard that last bit.

"Well Judy, one of the other quirks that got vixens their stereotype is that with foxes it's usually the female that takes the lead."

Judy blinked, startled again and then looked questioningly at Skye.

"Vixens get their reputation as being promiscuous flirts and homewreakers because a fox won't tease or flirt with someone that could be a potential mate unless they're seriously interested, that's why they feel safe teasing other mated couples, but vixens do somewhat deserve our reputation as being forward. For foxes its almost always the female that asks out the male, why _I_ was the one that proposed to Jack." Skye added preening a bit at the memory, before looking back at the wide-eyed bunny that was paying rapt attention.

"It might not be normal for most mammals, but it is for foxes. If for example Wilde is in love with, how did you put it? Some, _foxy lady_ , it would be pretty normal for him to hang around her a lot," Skye waved a paw in a general motion, "you know do all sorts of stuff together, and generally show that he _likes_ being around her. It would be up to the vixen to make the first real move, though if he's the type to be a bit forward, he'd flirt, maybe brush up against her side or let his tail come in contact with her, maybe drop some _sly_ hints here or there that he likes her." Skye smiled, "Foxes like doing that kind of thing. He won't come straight out and tell her that he likes her because that would be like directly asking her out. Instead, he'll show his interest and wait for her to decide if she likes him. And if she _does_ then, **_she_ ** would ask him out."

"So," Skye said pointing at Judy, "If you want to know who he's in love with then just watch to see what girl he spends most of his time around, with it being winter, he's going to want to be as close to her as possible."

Skye smirked at the look on Judy's face, which was reminiscent of someone trying to see the world from a completely new perspective and having a bit of a difficult time with it.

"Bit different for bunnies?" she asked her smirk growing a bit more and Judy nodded.

 _I think that might be enough_ , Skye thought to herself rather pleased with how their conversation had gone, _Once she wraps her mind around all that, I think she'll figure out pretty quickly which 'foxy lady' Wilde's following around like a lovesick puppy._

She snorted, at that grievous understatement of a thought, _He's so terminally lovesick, he should be dead. Poor fool can't think straight enough about her to realize that she's not operating from the same playbook._

That though, she thought as she considered it, might be doing Wilde a bit of disservice. In her case with Jack, they had both made open moves on each other and it hadn't taken long at all for them to start dating. Hopps and Wilde though, both of them had been waiting for the other and the resulting tension between them was now well past what any sane mammal would consider absurd.

 _Well my jobs done, let's get her back and see if any fireworks start happening._

Skye stood up, straighten her clothes and gestured toward the door, "Feeling better enough to go back and meet up with our boys? I want to get that last ride in before me and Jack head over to the concert."

Judy nodded again, seeming a bit distracted as if still thinking over what Skye had told her, but followed her to the door.

* * *

"Ralph, I thought we were supposed to be keeping an eye on Judy and Nick!" Nadine hissed as he dragged them to the end of the line for the ride.

"Nothing is going to happen to them for a few minutes, not with Savage and Skye watching them at least."

The two otters in front of them where directed toward a small sized boat and Ralph pulled her forward.

"You two will have to wait a moment," the elephant attendant running the ride said, stopping Ralph with his trunk, "They'll have some of the large sized boats back around in a minute."

Ralph looked at the boats docked in front of them, which were all mid and small sized ones and then back at Savage and Wilde. He turned back around hurriedly, saying with a bit of desperation, "We can fit in in of the mid-sized boats, no need to wait."

The elephant gave him a glance, then took a longer one at Nadine seeming to debate whether that was true.

"I don't mind being squeezing in with her," Ralph said a bit more desperately and Nadine flushed as the attendant smiled, giving Ralph a nod and not to subtle wink.

"Right, I expect you can, go take that one." The elephant said gesturing at the last boat docked to the side of the small artificial channel leading into the tunnel on the mid and small boat track.

"Thanks!" Ralph said quickly, hauling Nadine along behind him.

"Ralph! Come on, we can't fit in that!" she said looking down at the boat. Two wolves, small wolves, _might_ be able to fit in it but she was a tiger and Ralph was no runt either.

Ralph took one last worried look in the direction of Savage and Nick and back at the boat, his expression firming, "Oh yes we can. Here you get in first." He said moving to the side.

Nadine took another dubious look at the swan shaped boat and then at Ralph. She could tell by his twitchiness that he was still worried that Savage might do something like start telling everyone around about their little adventure.

"Ralph, that story can't be _that_ embarrassing." Nadine said in a last-ditch effort, only to see Ralph's ears and tail drop in alarm as his eyes went wide.

 _Or… maybe it could. I really wonder just what Clawhauser taught him?_

Nadine sighed, and started getting into the boat, since she couldn't stand seeing Ralph distressed like that. She'd have a chance to tease out all the details of that event later anyway.

As she carefully settled herself into the boat she tried to figure out how Ralph was going to fit. If it had been just her or maybe her and Judy there would have been enough room, but… But Ralph scampered in right after her not seeming to want to waste time debating exactly how it would work and a few moments followed were the boat rocked violently and almost tipped.

"Ralph!" Nadine squeaked, quickly grabbed her wolf who'd been trying to squeeze in next to her and pulled him onto her lap, "I _swear_ that if you tip this boat and dump us in the water I _won't_ kiss you after our date tomorrow!"

Ralph stopped squirming, now sitting across her lap and Nadine found that the position wasn't actually that uncomfortable; Ralph was only about two thirds her weight and while a bit heavy to be sitting on her lap it did mean he was cuddled up close to her.

He was warm and comfortable and Nadine felt her whole body heat up as she caught herself starting to stare at his longer fur, peaked out around the collar of his shirt. She had to fight back a sudden desire to nuzzle him and purr.

 _This is_ _ **such**_ _a bad idea,_ Nadine moaned to herself.

 _No, this is a_ _ **great**_ _idea,_ that bad kitty voice from this morning responded.

 _How is this a great idea!? I'm trapped on a tiny rickety boat with a wolf in my lap!_

 _A strong and attractive wolf that's in love with you… and that you (*mentally censored bleep*) too._

 _Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! This is not the time for that!_

 _Why? He's the guy you've compared every other potential date to for the last couple of years and none of them have come close to matching up, hell none of your dates before meeting him at the academy came close either._

 _SHUT UP! Because We're on a rickety boat above a channel of probably_ _ **cold**_ _water, that's why!_

 _… good point, best just to cuddle against your wolf for now, 'rocking the boat' right now might be bad._

 _Shut up! There will be no 'rocking the boat' today._

 _What about 'rocking the bed'?_

 _NO!_

 _What about tomorrow?_

 _'...'_

 _See, isn't that such a nice daydream?_

 _What?! Wait, no No NO! We will not be any rocking anything! Not today, not tomorrow!_

 _You were just day dreaming about him –_

 _SHUT UP!_

 _But that just got you really hot and bothered._

 _Don't Care!_

 _Working that out with Ralph would be a lot more fun than doing it yourself. And you know you want to…_

 _SHUT! UP!_

 _So how are you going to deal with it then?_

 _… I still have his shirt._

 _And you also have_ _ **him**_ _in your lap. He's probably much better than his shirt, remember this morning?_

 _That's. Not. Helping!_ Nadine mentally screamed, shifting on the seat, now very cognizant of a damp feeling between her legs.

 _Hey! Hey! Watch the boat, cold water remember?! Cuddle now, Rut later._

 _Shut Up!_ _Stop brining up those mental images! Didn't I shoot you this morning?! Stay dead for at least one day!_

 _The wolf kissed us and brought me back to life._

 _Stop bringing up daydreams about Ralph and Shut Up or I_ _ **swear**_ _I'll shoot you again!_

 _Fine, but you realize it's too late, right?_

 _And it's_ _ **your**_ _fault I feel like this now!_ Nadine shifted slightly again, but that didn't help with the discomfort of damp cloth.

 _Oh… not that, I didn't mean with that._

 _What?_

 _Ralph's nose is twitching and his tail is thumping._

 _WHAT?!_

 _Well, he_ _ **is**_ _a wolf, they do have great noses._

 _No, No, No, No._

 _Ouhhh! His eyes are getting all predatory in that way you love._

 _SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT -Ohhhh gods_

Nadine shuddered as Ralph nuzzled her in the same spot he'd marked her this morning and then kissed the corner of her jaw.

There was a loud 'Ehem' and both she and Ralph turned to see the elephant attendant, though Nadine felt slightly dazed.

"If you two could hold off for just a minute until your out of sight please," he said and then reached over and pushed the boat out form the dock slot and into the slowly moving stream of the artificial channel. Nadine squeaked as the boat rocked and clutched Ralph hard against her chest. But after a few moments, which set Nadine's heart racing, the rocking motion settled down to a smooth sway as the boat drifted along toward the tunnel mouth.

Nadine relaxed slightly and took a deep breath, only noticing as her chest expanded that what she'd taken for the rapid thrumming of her heart was actually Ralph growling in in a low contentedly happy way. It was more audible and rumbly and had a flare of possessiveness that a cat's purr didn't and to Nadine's alarmed dismay she found it to be extremely sexy.

Then she looked down and realized that her tight hold on Ralph had forced his muzzle right in between her breasts again.

She squeaked and pushed him away from her chest, causing the boat to rock dangerously again. Nadine let out another louder squeak and only then realized that she'd desperately clutching Ralph back to her.

Ralph's possessive growl from between her breasts grew louder.

* * *

A/N

…

Operations Clock: +6 hours

…

Petty Officer: "Sir! That Fluff Nuke timer is still ticking down!"

...

Secret Squirrel Division Report:

Successfully stolen Skye's cherry obsession and original last name from Starfang's Secrets 'Embrace it'. Also found some rumors suggesting she's starting another awesome tale soon. Request sent to pirate division to monitor for more opportunities to steal other great bits of her rumored upcoming work.

Inspiration for part of SavageSkye's back story taken from an awesome little comic that can be found here at 'replytoanons dot tumblr dot com/post/149823893595' it's ridiculously cute. Request sleezy pirate lawyers try to steal *ehem* get permission to feature it on Ao3 site version of story (since they allow pics to be added)

…

Supply Division Report:

*Hossa!* Resupplies of coffee inbound. Ridiculous delays for the next chapter should be averted!

Bad news, this chapter got split in two.

…

...

A Big Wedding, or a Bigger Wedding, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to 'help'

The shrews and bears of outrageous family fortune,

To take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To 'ship' succeed — To _Kiss_ proceed

-Quote from the upcoming summer blockbuster hit 'A Zootopia Hamlet: Icing Tragedy', Directed by Fru Fru Big (Movie Poster Image – Koslov's picture)

…


	11. Chapter 11 - Tunnel of Chaos: Part 2

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +6 hours

…

Disclaimer:

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock...

Yes sir, we're trying to disarm the Fluff Nuke as fast as we can...

Its not as easy as just picking a blue or red wire! That only works in the movies!

Sir, We can't just get rid of the Fluff Nuke either! We need it for the plan remember? Whats the point of all of this if The Plan doesn't succeed? That and its welded to the deck.

Anyway, we spent too much time stealing all the required parts from Disney and all the other authors that stole stuff from Disney as well, to make this! These things are complicated darnit! Getting all the little plot elements to align just right so that the first level of Fluff explosions triggers a cascading fluff chain reaction...

Well sorry if I'm boring you sir! You want to be the one to try picking whether to cut the blue or red wire?

Thought so. No sir, I'm not being snarky like the Damned grinch, but low coffee rations will do that and this Fluff Nuke is just damned complicated! They take time and that Damned grinch that helped make it is running around like a caffeine addicted squirrel going into withdraw while being chased by the demonic fluff hoard. I'd like to see you try to get him to help disarm this thing. I'm pretty sure he only helped in the beginning to screw with us all anyway... and the note he left said so to.

Now if you don't I need to get back to trying to disarm this thing before we're all Fluffed!

* * *

Chapter 11 – Tunnel of Chaos: Part 2

"So what's the deal with all you little chompers and carrots?" Nick asked looking across at Jack as he dug into his piece of carrot cake.

"What's the deal with all you predators being addicted to fruit?" Jack shot back smugly.

"Because fruit is sweet." Nick replied, with a disdainful look at the carrot cake and holding up his blueberry pie plate, "Who doesn't like sugary goodness?"

"Humm…" Jack said, a contemplative look on his face, "What mammal wouldn't like sugary goodness? Guess us _little choppers_ must be crazy, what with liking carrot smoothies, honey glazed carrots, and carrot _cake_!" Savage said and smirked. Nick made a touché gesture with his fork to the hare.

Nick couldn't help but think that he could come to like the hare sitting across from him. Savage had a quick wit and decent sense of humor. They'd spent their short break shooting quips back and forth, which was exactly the type of distraction Nick needed at the moment.

"Anyway," Jack continued, "You seem to like _Carrots_ well enough." He said pointing with his fork at the slice of carrot cake next to his slice of pie he was almost done eating.

That got a non-comitial snort and Nick simply pointed back at the slice of cherry pie sitting next to Jack in reply.

The hare shrugged and they sat in silence for a moment not really needing to say anything else.

"Blueberries are still the best." Nick said after the silent moment which got an immediate scornful look and reply of, "Ridiculous!"

Nick grinned; It helped to be able to have a deep meaningful conversation like that with another guy about his forlorn love interest.

Even if he wasn't showing it he still felt flustered from the crowd and more importantly, Nadine and Ralph finding out about his hopeless crush on Judy. He was sure that it wouldn't be long before one of them told Clawhauser and then his secret would all over the precinct's gossip net.

 _And what if Judy finds out?_ He couldn't help from worrying, only to have two different reactions wage a silent war within him.

There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than that. Wanted desperately to tell her how he felt. Wanted, _needed_ to tell her, show her how much he loved her. It was part of why he hadn't been able to stop himself from essentially all but courting her; Granted, in a way she probably wouldn't pick up on, her being a bunny and all, but telling her without actually telling her that he loved her was about as bold as he could possibly bring himself to be.

And then there was the other part of himself that feared the moment she might find out that he thought of her as more than just his friend. Feared that she'd reject him. Feared that he'd lose their friendship. It was a fear that had kept him up late at night more than once.

Nick looked back over at the striped hare sitting across from him as he took another bite of his pie letting the familiar flavor distract him from his fears. Maybe, just maybe his hope that things might someday change, and change for the better between him and Judy wasn't such a fanciful outlandish dream after all.

"So…" he started, after savoring his bite, "You and Skye?"

Savage didn't make any response but fiddled with his fork for a moment before finally scooping out a piece of the untouched cheery pie next to him and lifting it up to examine.

He smiled briefly before saying in a wistfully happy manner, "Ya… me and Skye." and ate the bite.

Nick was silent for a moment then reached over and stole a piece of the untouched cake next to him and tasted it.

 _Maybe there is a chance…_

Stupid or not, he couldn't help hoping, though that just might make him a dumb fox. Then he grinned; if Judy only knew how her optimism had infected him ever since he'd met her.

"As much as I've come to love _Carrots_ ," Nick said to Jack with a smirk, "Blueberries are still the best food."

The hare just sat back with a smug look reminiscent of Nick's hustler smirk, which immediately set off a sudden alarm in his mind. He only had a moment to think about it before his fork was plucked out of his paw.

"Best food or not, you eat too many of them," Judy said from right behind him and speared his last bit of his pie plopping it in her mouth.

"Hey!" Nick said in horror watching the last bit of his treat disappear, "That's theft Judy, I should arrest you for that! Grand theft berry, that's what that was!"

"And what do you call that, then?" she asked pointing to the slice of carrot cake with the corner missing.

Nick crossed his arms, "And how do you know that was me and not that suspicious looking hare across the table?"

Judy smirked, "Then where did this come from?" she reached out, wiping a bit of the carrot cakes frosting off of his muzzle with a finger and holding it up so he could see it.

Nick's ears started to splayed out in alarm, but he pulled himself together, adamantly saying, "That could be from the whip-cream on my pie, you have no proof that's-" he cut off as Judy tasted the icing and looked back at him like a fox corning a helpless rabbit, which Nick thought was just unfair.

"Tastes like carrot cake icing to me, Slick." She said, pointing the fork at him, coming in for the kill, "How are you gonna try to talk your way out of this one?"

Nick looked over and hiss at Jack, "Psst… Jack, Bud, hey a little help here?"

Jack who'd been a little preoccupied staring at his mate who was standing next to him, arms crossed and finger tapping as she gave him a moderate glower, looked over briefly at him. Then he looked at Judy, the cake and then spoke quickly before turning back to Skye.

"He stole a bite from that cake he bought for you. Saw it myself. Blatant theft. Absolutely despicable."

"Traitor!" Nick growled back with a glare, but Jack already had his full attention back on Skye. He picked up the slice of cherry pie and held it up with a hopeful, if shaky, smile as if presenting a peace offering. Skye held the glowering look for another second and then huffed and took the pie plate much to Jack's relief.

Nick's attention was brought back to the smirking bunny in front of him as the fork poked his nose. "So carrot thief, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Nick raised both his paws in a surrender gesture, and with his best charming smile said, "Carrots were too good to resist?"

Judy laughed, then reached over, took the cake and started demolishing it in her straightforward patented Judy manner of doing everything, that was with excess amounts of energy and enthusiasm. Nick grinned but before he could make a comment about her monstrous munching habit she pointed the fork threateningly at him again.

"Shush you! Not a word about it, I'm still deciding your punishment," another forkful of the cake disappeared, "You know well enough it's a habit I got from growing up with 275 siblings; slow eaters miss out on the best desserts."

Nick weighed his options, but decided that the situation was too perfect for a joke and opened his mouth… only for a forkful of carrot cake to fill it before he could speak.

"Well if that's the case then, I've decided on you're punishment. Since you apparently are getting so fond of carrots, you can come over next weekend when my parents are visiting. My mother has sworn that she's going to finally teach me how to cook properly so I'll stop eating all this 'unhealthy big city fast-food'; steamed carrots, baked carrots, carrot soup." She extracted the fork and tapped him on the nose as his eyes started going wide in fright, "And you are going to be my official taste tester."

"Judy please!" Nick pleaded feeling a trickle of fear. Judy might have enthusiasm to spare, but enthusiasm alone didn't make a good cook. He'd seen and tasted her attempts at it before, "I'll get you a second piece of cake if you want! Just-"

"Nope," Judy cut him of smirking and finishing the last of the cake, "You're not getting out of that Nick. If I'm going to have to suffer through another attempt by my parents to teach me to cook, you can suffer though it with me. Besides you do eat too much fast food, even burnt carrots are still healthy."

There was a whip-cracking noise and Nick looked over and glared at Jack who was snickering at him and making a whipped gesture. His snickering cut off as Skye gave one of his long striped ears a pinch and then used it to direct the suddenly much less amused hare after her.

"Come on Jack, less laughing and more moving, or we're not going to get our ride in before the concert."

Nick, instead of retaliating in the same childish manner, such as sticking out his tongue, decided to act mature and only snapped a few photos of the hare, snickering as he was led away.

There was a cough next to him and Nick looked over at Judy who was tapping her foot.

"You coming, Slick? Skye's right, we need to hurry or we're going to be late for the concert."

"Lead on McFluff. Lead on." He said giving her one of his jaunty salutes that he'd practiced just to drive Bogo nuts.

* * *

Ralph had always thought that cheesy love boat rides were silly and stupid. He still thought they were silly but as for stupid, well whoever thought them up was a genius.

He let out another happy growl as Nadine squeaked and pulled him back to her, the boat rocking as it entered the tunnel.

He could smell her scent all around him rich and exotic. Despite all the deodorant she'd used it had been growing stronger all day, and then there were moments like now were it spiked with a deeper, sweeter more intoxicating flavor. He breathed it in, that rich sharp scent wafting up and mixing with the unique strong scent of _his_ tiger. His warm soft strong tigress.

His tail started thumping away and he growled louder as the scents muddled his mind like he'd just downed an entire row of shots.

"Ralph," Nadine said warningly, though a little hoarsely.

She was already holding him to her, so he just nuzzled her a little bit. He could feel the ragged gasp that resulted and the fast beating of her heart as her arms jerked, momentarily pulling him tight against her.

Mind muddy with her scent, he growled possessively again, liking her reaction to him. So he nuzzled against her more.

"Oh gods! Ralph!" she gasped and shifted, causing the boat to rock slightly and her movements to quickly cease as her breathing to pick up.

One of her big paws rested against his muzzle and angled his head up until their eyes met.

She swallowed hard, eyes a little panicked and open her mouth, "Ralph, we-"

He kissed her.

There was a moment's hesitation and then she was kissing him back.

Ralph growled happily into the kiss, and wrapped his paws around her neck, scooting close against her.

The kiss broke for a moment of air and then they were kissing again, Nadine holding him back and angling her muzzle to deepen the kiss.

They pulled away for another breath and Ralph looked into her eyes, eyes that seemed to glow with a faint brilliance in the dark tunnel. All he could smell was _her_. Him and her, and it felt right. She was _his_ tiger and he was _her_ wolf.

"Nadine," he started, mind fuzzy and drunk off of their scents and feel of his not-quite-yet-mate, "Nadine… I lov-"

She kissed him again before he could finish. A brief but powerful kiss.

She pulled back, her heart hammering hard enough he could easily feel it and said desperately, "Not yet Ralph. Not here. Not-"

Ne nuzzled her cheek, smelling their scents mixing, overlapping in the proximity of the boat and nearly whined as she gave a shuddering moan. The analytical part of his mind knew he was moving too fast, but that barely seemed to matter anymore. He'd slowly been building up his courage to finally take the plunge, to try and win her affection and her heart, but to find out so suddenly that she'd not only give him a chance but already returned his feels? It was all he could do not to try claiming her right there and then. His instincts were screaming at him to do just that. To make this mix of their scents while so close permanent, to mark her as his own and then claim her as his mate in the most primal fashions.

He nuzzled her cheek again and this time she nuzzled back and his instincts howled.

"Nadine," He whined still nuzzling, "I _need_ to tell you how I feel. I _need_ you to know."

She nipped him, "I already know how you feel, Ralph," she said and then kissed him again, and his heart and tail seemed to go mad, flailing away widely.

He couldn't hold it in, and tried telling her as soon as their lips parted, "I lov-" but she kissed him fiercely before he finished.

She pulled back but before he could speak, she pressed her paw to his lips as she nipped his jaw line.

"Not here, not on this _boat,_ Ralph!" She said voice rough and a little wild, almost hysterical as she nipped him harder. He let out a growl and kissed the side of her muzzle as a low vibrating purr started deep in her chest as she growled, "I don't want to tell you on a _damned_ boat!" she said almost desperately between almost frantic nips and kisses along his neck and ruff as he tried to kiss just about every part of her head and nuzzle against her ears. "Ralph… you promised … promised you'd wait until I told you first," she pushed her muzzle and head under his chin in a long arching nuzzle, and purred like a smooth car engine. Her paws were still holding him, claws partially extended as if to make sure he wouldn't run. She repeated the motion, pushing her head up under his chin and along his muzzle, purring even louder.

It sent a wave of fiery need through him and he let out a short howl before tackling her, grinding up against her and kissing her frantically, and she responded kissing him just as furiously, her paws dipped under his shirt running through his fur.

A cold spash of water came over the side of the boat as it rocked violently from their struggles and Nadine let out a startled shriek.

Ralph suddenly found his muzzle buried between her breast again as she clutched him to her apparently intent on squeezing the life out of him. Not that he really minded as she only succeeded in forcing his face into her softest feature, one of the few parts of her that wasn't sleek powerfully toned muscle. He took a long deep breath and was filled with the pure smell of his tigress. With his nose jammed into her chest, the scent was overpowering, laced with her smell and pheromones. He let out a loud deeply possessive growl, that screamed, ' _ **MINE**_ ' and nuzzled hard against her.

" _Ralph_!" Nadine squawked as she shuddered, "Ralph the boat! Careful of the boat!" But he was too far gone in her scent to hear her. The shirt she was wearing had ridden up some from all their movement and as he nuzzled, the tip of his nose found the bottom of it. Without conscious thought, he tipped his head up and under her shirt running his nose through her fur and drinking in her scent. His nose bumped up against her bra and he ran gave an automatic small wolfish lick.

"Oh sweet mother Destiny!" Nadine swore loudly arching against him and he growled in satisfaction. "Ralph! Don'-" he did it again, and her scent spiked as she gasped and arched. He would have continued in that deliriously happy haze but there was a sudden grip on the scruff of his neck and his muzzle was pulled out from under her shirt.

Faster than his muddled mind could process he was spun around and two strong arms and a flexible feline tail wrapped around him pinning his arms to his side and his back against Nadine's heaving chest.

"You… evil… naughty… wolf…" Nadine said between heavy pants, as he tried to twist about to continue nuzzling her. She nipped his shoulder hard and didn't release as she growled, "Bad, Bad, BAD, wolf! We're going to swamp the boat at this rate!"

Ralph only realized then that his hindpaws were in a pool of water that had collected in the bottom of the boat. He stopped his struggles and Nadine growled one last time before letting go of his shoulder only to buried her muzzle in the crook of his neck as she took in great lungful's of air, slowing her ragged breathing.

It took Ralph a few moments as well before he started getting some semblance of control back. His tail's frantic wagging slowed as he realized just how far he'd let his instincts take him. If Nadine hadn't grabbed hold of him and pinned him against against her, he'd wouldn't have stopped. He'd been right on the edge of trying to claim her, of taking her right in this wobbly boat and in the process would have certainly sunk them… and possibly his chances with her given how much she disliked cold water.

His tail had gone limp at that as he berated himself for losing control. Winter or not, Nadine's intoxicating scent or not, he'd been on the verge of going savage and trying to rut her like this was 10,000 years ago in prehistoric times.

"Sorry Nadine," he mumbled, his ears downcast, "I… I was losing it there. I shouldn't have-"

He gasped as she nipped his neck.

"Shush you," She nestled her head against him, "Just save all of that for the bedroom. We'd flip this boat if we tried rutting in it."

His ears popped up, "You wanted to… I mean you'd have… here, _now_?" he stuttered to a stop his tail starting to wag again.

" _Ralph_!" Nadine whined desperately, "You at least need to take me to dinner first!" she groaned, slumping against him, before muttering to herself almost too quietly for him to hear, "Gods, I'm not sure if I can wait until tomorrow night."

His tail started drumming against the side of the boat but Nadine grabbed it and brought it around to his lap where she idly started to play around with it, running her fingers through it in an almost absentmindedly fashion, her head still slumped into his shoulder.

Ralph rumbled, slumping back against her, his mind wandering as he basked in the comfort of being so close to Nadine.

 _Oh Karma, I love when she pets my tail,_ he thought, his mind going a bit hazy as she started stroking it.

 _I wonder if she'd let me take her to dinner tonight after we finish our job tailing Wilde and Hopps_

 _Might be too late at night by then,_ another part of his mind thought glumly. The idea of having to go back to the small house he shared with his brother and sleep by himself was not pleasant.

 _Maybe take-out then? Would that count?_

 _That just makes you sound like you're desperate to get some tail._

 _I don't want just any tail! I want her! I **need** her!_

 _That's not making you sound any less desperate._

 _I AM desperate! What if someone else comes along and claims her first?! What then?!_

 _Buddy that's the cave-wolf talking; She already said she's interested in you, this isn't the savage days where you have to fight off every other male and claim her first._

 _*growl* My Tiger! Me club stupid head that thinks too much! MINE!_

 _Okay! Okay! Don't hurt me! Shesh... maybe see if she wants to get take-out and then just crash at our place and maybe snuggle together for the night?_

 _… snuggling with Nadine sounds nice._

 _Snuggling with her right now_ _ **is**_ _nice._

 _*happy sigh* yep, it's very nice_

 _Just don't let mom find out what you're up too._

 _*shudder* That would not be good._

 _That deserves the understatement of the year award, but seriously we need to find a way of telling her that we've found a mate before she finds out._

 _That's… not going to be easy._

 _Or that we're planning on moving out of the pack neighborhood and into that apartment with Nadine._

 _She's going to kill us._

 _It's not like every pack member lives in the neighborhood, it might not be that bad._

 _Really? First, most of them do, Second, this is my_ _ **Mother**_ _we're speaking of!_

 _Good point. Maybe speak to dad first?_

 _Ohhh, good idea, If we can get one half of the pack's alpha pair on our side we might be able to survive this._

 _Right, break it to dad gently that I'm going to mate Nadine._

 _Court, 'court' Nadine_

 _*growl*_

 _The idea is to break it to them gently numb-skull_

 _Oh right, sorry, okay, break the news to dad that I'm going to 'court' Nadine and get him comfortable with the idea that she'd going to be my mate, and then about us moving into that apartment together._

"Ralph," Nadine said sounding amused as she broke into his thoughts, "Your tail is trying to wag again. What are you thinking about?"

"Oh," he made an effort to stop it and Nadine giggled softly, "I ah, just was thinking about how to break the news to my parents that I'm moving in with you."

 _Dumbo! We haven't discussed moving in with her yet!_

He felt Nadine stiffen a bit and he hurriedly tried to back track, "I ah, don't mean move in tonight! I was just, um, thinking about that renovated apartment your landlady was talking about!"

 _Dope! Idiot! Moron!_

"Um… I mean, if you… want… to?" he finished lamely. He could feel his ears dropping and wanted to whack his head repeatedly on something, "Oh gods I screwed that up, didn't I?"

Ralph was just considering whether he should throw himself overboard when he noticed Nadine's scent change. He sniffed the air, it had thickened again, like when-

Nadine's paw snapped over his nose.

"That's _Cheating_! Stop using your nose to figure out how I feel about stuff before I tell you!" She half shouted, half squeaked.

"So… is that a yes?" Ralph couldn't help asking as his tail tried to wag furiously

"That's me not giving you an answer yet!" Nadine snapped, removing her paw to grab his tail again.

"Because I was thinking," Ralph continued, too excited to stop, "That if we talk to your landlady tomorrow before the renovations are done, we could get a bathroom with the shower set at the right height, or maybe at least a bathtub that could fit both of us."

Even as Nadine groaned her scent continued getting stronger, with a very noticeable excited and aroused flair to it.

"Ralph, why don't we talk about something else? Anything else?" she sounded a little desperate but then a huge smile break across her face, "how about you tell me about Ms. Ramsbottom?"

His tail immediately stopped.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He said, completely unconvincingly, even to himself.

"Really?" Nadine said her smile only growing wider and she leaned in purring against his ear, "What if I call Clawhauser and ask about your special dance lessons? Hummm…?"

"You wouldn't!" Ralph gasped, turning to her, wide eyed.

Nadine smirked and pulled out her phone, flipping through her contacts until she found Clawhauser's.

"Well, Ralph? Should I ask him?" she asked, smiling predatorily at him and leaning in so close her nose almost touched his as her tail tip snapped excitedly against his stomach

"No! I... ah…" he stammered trying to figure out what to do. He took in a breath trying to calm himself enough to think, but her scent filling the air felt like a fog in his mind. Strong, exotic, feminine and excited… a very aroused excited. A sudden idea hit him.

"Fine, I'll tell you, okay? Just put the phone away." he said holding back his own smirk with difficulty.

Nadine put her phone away looking extremely pleased with herself.

"Okay, Ralph. Spill." She commanded crossing her arms and looking at him expectantly.

Ralph let part of his grin slip onto his face and noticed the sudden wariness creep into Nadine's.

"Well…" he scooted off her lap and stood up in front of her, careful not to rock the boat too much, "there's no pole here so I can't show that particular 'dance' routine I used but..." he swished his rear and tail watching as her eyes, almost unwillingly dragged themselves down to lock on the appendage, "Maybe I can see if I can give you a bit of an idea of what it was like," he backed up so that he was almost against her knees and with an exaggerated motion swished his tail up and around so that it brushed lightly under her chin. "I guess because this is only for you after all that I could even give you a special little show," He rocked a bit, side to side, letting his tail sway lazily in counter point to his hips. He smirked as he saw Nadine gulp visible as her scent was spiking _hard_. His nostrils flared as her arousal hit him and bolstered his confidence.

He did a slow turn making sure to move in a way to show off every bit of himself and grinned wickedly as he noticed her eyes track down and lock to the point just below his belt where a bulge showed as he arched his hips.

"Like what you see Nadine?" He said, now very smug with himself as she tried to look up at him but failed to unstick her eyes.

She gulped again, "R-Rralph, I-I'm not s-sure this-" he arched his hips forward again, then turned, swishing his tail and plopped down in her lap rocking back onto it.

"Hummm… what was that Nadine?" he asked, rubbing his tail against her.

"R-ralphhhh…" she started to say but trailed off into a stifled moan as she squirmed under him.

"Careful, Nadine," Ralph said in an overly sweet voice, thoroughly enjoying himself, "Don't want to rock the boat now do you? Would be a shame to get all _wet_." He said as he rubbed as much of himself up against her as he could.

Her eyes narrowed on him dangerously, "You evil bad w-w-wolf- o-oh gods." Nadine closed her eyes and clenched her jaw as he pushed himself hard into her lap and front.

Ralph was grinning wickedly as he cooed to her, "But I'm _your_ bad wolf, Nadine." he turned around, careful so the boat didn't sway too much, until he was straddling her and she let out a groaning moan, her paws wrapping around to grab his rear, keeping him from moving away. Ralph rocked forward, grinding against her and she shuddered, her head dropping against his shoulder with her eyes still closed tight.

He kissed her neck lightly, bringing his paws up to run along her, "This is your little show Nadine, just for you and no one else, ever." He whispered to her, loving the low noises she was making and how her paws were clutching at him, "Just relax so the boat doesn't flip." He kissed her lightly again, "And tell me if I start going too far, okay?" he kept up his grinding motion and let his paws slip under her clothes.

"R-ralph," she panted desperately, her whiskers brushing against his neck as he continued, and then she shuddered and made a small mewing sound, before latching her maw down on his shoulder, as one of her paws went under the back of his shirt and the other ran behind his tail, pulling him closer.

* * *

"So how'd it go?" Jack whispered to Skye as they watched the ride attended push the boat with Wilde and Hopps out into the artificial stream. There had only been one medium sized boat left and Skye had insisted that they take it, saying she needed a moment to talk to Jack anyway.

That had sent off some red flags in his mind. He just hoped whatever he had done this time, that the extra slice of cherry pie he had gotten her would make up for it.

If it didn't… well, there was always groveling. Any smart husband knew that making sure their mate was happy was far more important than any little bit of stuck up self-important pride.

"Pretty well." Skye replied, "I explained a few details about foxes to her. I think she can take it from there. It's certainly a better approach than _yours_."

 _Uh-oh, that's another red flag. What about my approach has her tail in a knot? Trying to get an outburst from them so they would slip up and say something that the other couldn't rationalize away might not have been the subtlest plan but it could have worked… maybe._ He didn't think that was it though.

 _Did I use a bit too much charm or something? All I did was throw a few smiles around and give her paw a… oh..._

 _Yep. That's probably it, dumbass. Traditional greeting or not, she probably didn't like that, especially since its winter._

 _Crap._

 _Drop to your knees and start begging._

"Ummm…. Skye?" he started slowly, wanting to approach this carefully. "You ah, know that I wasn't flirting at all right? Wilde might think she's cute, but her tails to short and her furs to dark and-"

Skye cut him off with a gesture, and turned to the elephant in charge of the ride, "We're fine taking one of the larger boats you just pulled around instead of waiting for more of the smaller ones." The attendant shrugged and pointed to one and Jack followed behind Skye, ears drooping.

 _Told you._ part of his mind said annoyingly, _should have left off the charm and compliments and jumped straight to groveling._

Jack stayed quiet, judging from the way Skye's ears and tail were twitching that silence was probably his best option at the moment.

It wasn't until they were entering the gaudy tunnels mouth that Skye spoke up.

"I know you didn't mean it like that." She said not quite angrily and his hopes soared.

 _Oh thank Serendipity, I thought I was in for the couch there tonight._

 _Shut-up and listen fool, she's not done!_

Jack looked up and saw Skye's usually smiling face frown.

"I know that it's not the same for bunnies, and that its winter right now and that I'm overreacting." Skye continued, her frown deepening.

 _Shit, it's really bugging her. Do something quick._

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as his mind shouted a warning at him.

 _No Dumbass! If you make some sort of charmingly flippant remark you_ _ **will**_ _end up on the couch!_

He paused reconsidering what he was going to say and then went with the simplest truth he could think off.

"Skye, I love _you_."

The corner of her frown ticked up in a slight smile and her ears perked.

 _See, handled that just fine. Not always a dumbass am I?_ He thought smugly back to himself with a slight bit of relief.

 _No, you're not always a dumbass, you occasionally make smart moves such as marrying Skye._

Skye scooted over close to him on the overly large bench of the elephant sized boat that was more like a small ship to them.

"I know you do," Skye said, sounding much happier as she leaned into him, "I love you too." She kissed his cheek. "I love you so much that sometimes I get jealous for the stupidest reasons even though I know you'd never leave me."

"Damn straight," he said, "I got caught by a cunning vixen and now I'll never be able to love anyone else because she took my heart."

"You're such a charmer." Skye giggled and kissed him this time on his fore head, before pulling back and looking at him with a good bit of self-satisfaction. Then, grinning, she planted a few more kisses on his face and neck and then even a few on his ears before putting a paw on his chin and tilting it up and planting a solid kissing square on his lips.

A kiss that made his ears stand bolt upright, and he opened to her as she pressed the kiss, letting his mouth mingle with hers, tasting her… and also tasting a remaining hint of cherry.

That sparked a sudden suspicion in his mind and he broke the kiss. Skye leaned back smirking as he grabbed one of his ears and pulled it around to see one of the spots she'd kissed. The tunnel was dark, with only faint light from some of the cliché decorations that littered the interior walls, so he couldn't see more than shades of gray, not having good night vision like Skye; but even in the weak light he could see a darker spot under the natural stripes of his fur that looked suspiciously kiss shaped.

"Skye did you just leave cherry stain kiss marks all over my fur?" he asked looking back up at a very smug vixen.

"And what if I did?" she asked sweetly and giggled.

"Then I'm going to kiss you back until your fur is all mussed looking too!" Jack said and jumped on her, kissing everywhere he could as she squealed and giggled under his assault.

* * *

"I still think this ride is unbelievably corny." Nick said making Judy laugh and breaking the small awkward silence that had fallen between them after getting into the boat.

Nick squinted as they approached the tunnel entrance and then pulled out his shades, flicking them open and put them on in one smooth motion that Judy was sure he'd spent hours practicing to look as smooth and cool as possible.

"Seriously," she said giggling but he just looked at her nonchalantly.

"Carrots, you know I have sensitive eyes," he waved at the tunnel they were entering, "The sheer cheesy gaudiness of that could permanently damage them! Besides," he smirked at her saying with a ridiculous amount of suave, "They make me look _cool_."

"You know you're not a movie star right? There's no cameras around or paparazzi following you that you need to try looking 'cool' for. Plus we're about to go into a tunnel. Where it's _dark_. And if you've forgotten, those are _sunglasses_."

"Carrots. Carrots. Carrots." He said shaking his head with an amused grin, "I'm not trying to look 'cool', I _am_ cool," he pulled his glasses down far enough on his muzzle with a claw so that he could wink at her, "And how do you know that I'm not a secret star that's in hiding from the paparazzi?"

"Really Nick? _Really_?" she asked looking at him dubiously, and he struck a pose swishing his tail.

"What? You don't think this handsome fox could be a star?" he waved at himself smirking and leaned over to her, "I'll tell you a secret, I gave it a try once but gave it up because it made all the ladies fall hopelessly for me. I'm just not cut out for that kind of life, having a crowd of girls always following me around and all."

Judy scoffed and snagged his glasses, putting them on (and immediately going almost blind behind the dark lenses).

"Nick," she said smirking at where she thought he was, "I might believe you…" she pulled the glasses down, copying him, wink and all, "but you don't have a pompadour fur-do." She smirked more at his momentary loss of composure, "Sorry Slick but you're no Mister Fox."

"What?!" Nick said his face scrunching and ears snapping back and then up and back down as he snatched his glasses back, "You're a bunny! How do you even know about that song? It was never very popular, barely even made the budget!"

Judy snickered as he recomposed himself, "I didn't know you were into pop music Nick." She poked his side as he put his glasses back on and looked up haughtily, saying, "I _don't._ " but she could tell that she was getting to him by the reaction of his ears and tail.

She grinned, pushing her advantage. It wasn't often that she got him on the defense like this and she was going to make the most of it.

"Hummm… I don't think I believe that. You claim not to care for Gazelle's music either, but you seem to know quite a lot about all of it. You were talking about the Backstreet Bunnies earlier and now about Mister Fox… oh," she clapped her paws together smiling evilly at him and squealed, "Are you a fan of Justine Beaver too!"

Nick groaned and put his face into his paws with a disgusted sound.

"You are!" Judy cackled and Nick looked at her intently from behind his shades for a second, then remembering, pulled his sunglasses off, so that she could see his glare before putting them back on.

"Oh gods, I can't wait to tell Clawhauser!" Judy continued giggling despite his look. "We can all go to a karaoke bar! Even if you can't dance, I bet you'd make a halfway decent Mister Fox!" Judy was giggling and laughing so hard she had to hold her sides to stop from falling over.

"No." Nick huffed crossing his arms, before vehemently saying, "I will _never_ sing that song again!"

Judy stopped long enough to look at him and Nick stiffened. Even with the glasses on she could tell he was going wide eyed at his slip up. Judy burst out laughing and fell over onto him.

"You even know the song!" she crowed between laughs.

"No I don't!" Nick said.

"You are such a Lier, Nick!" Judy laughed flicking an ear at him, her paws busy holding her sides from her laughter, "I heard your heart speeding up, slick! You _totally_ know the song! I bet you can even do the dance from the music video!"

There was another hard spike to his heart rate and Judy started crowing, "You can! Oh My Gosh! You _Can_!" even as Nick started sputtering denials, which just made her laugh more.

"You so can Nick!" she said still snickering after she'd caught her breath again.

"Can not!" Nick huffed moodily, poking her nose

"Can to!" she replied swatting his paw away.

"Can _not!_ "

"Can to!" she poked him in the side, smirking, "Yes you can Nick, don't try to deny it! You can't hide anything from me!"

"Yes I can!" Nick said

"Ha, so you admit it!" Judy said triumphantly, as Nick balked.

"No! I admitted no such thing!" he said waving his paws in denial and shaking his head.

Judy grinned and pulled out her lucky carrot pen and released the rewind button.

*click* _'Yes I can!'_ Nick's voice replayed.

"Wait! that's not-"

"Give it up Nick! I've got you dead to rights," Judy cut in smugly, "I even have a witness testimony."

She hit the button again

*click* _'Yes I can!'_

"No, I said 'I can' to being able to hide stuff from you! Not that I can do the dance in that music video!" Nick tried reasoning, sounding a bit panicked and Judy moved in sensing weakness.

"So you admit then that you _are_ hiding the fact that you know the song and dance?"

"No!" Nick said ears splayed back and eyes wide, looking exactly like when she'd gotten him over his taxes.

*click* _'Yes I can!'_

"Juuuudddyyyyyyy," Nick groaned in defeat, putting his face in his paws. Triumphant, Judy took in a breath only for Nick's head to pop up looking at her with a panicked and horrified expression.

"No, no, no, _please_ don't say it!"

Judy just gave him her sweetest smile,

"It's a hustle, _sweetheart._ "

Nick clutched his ears and whined before flopping down across her lap like she'd stabbed him.

Giggling, Judy tapped him on the nose.

"You should know better than to try and hustle _me_ Nick," she said, pleased with herself, "I always get you in the end."

Nick just whined again giving her a puppy eyes look that quite effectively melted her heart. She smirked and on impulse leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose.

"That's for the go-karts," she said smugly, happy to have a justifiable reason to kiss him. She giggled again at the way his ears perked up at her kiss, and then deciding to be merciful said, "But since you got me a piece of carrot cake, I'll be nice and keep your secret pop music obsession safe from Clawhauser.

"You're going to tease me about that, I just know it." Nick said grumpily but his slowly wagging tail gave away his real feelings, "And how do you even know about that song? It got all sorts of flak from rabbits in the city. How did it make its way out to Bunnyburrow?"

Judy snickered again at that, thinking back to the music video she'd watching secretly with her siblings (mostly her sisters) and her friends back in highschool. It had felt so rebellious in her conservative little town to watch that music video starring a sleek shirtless fox (so different from Gideon) wearing only tight shorts that showed off such a fabulously long and soft looking tail.

Most bunnies didn't see anything attractive in predators at all, but if there was one thing that was bound to intrigue them, whether out of curiosity or a sense of inferiority, it was their tails. And fox tails weren't only long but they looked like they could even rival a bunny's 'cotton tail' softness. The year that music video had spread through Bunnyburrow like a wildfire, the towns bully Gideon had suddenly become quite shy as every other mammal in their school class abruptly started trying to sneak a feel just to see if fox tail's really were that soft.

Judy shook herself out of her memories.

"Nick, that song was pretty much banned in Bunnyburrow. Every bunny family around was properly aghast and horrified as such an 'unseemly display' with a fox singing with bunny dancers and told their children they were not to watch it or listen to it. And that pretty much ensured every single bunny of my generation _has_ seen it. My sister even slipped it into the prom dance music mix." She laughed, though a bit embarrassedly, "They teachers were more livid about that then when they found out that someone had spiked the punch!"

"Huh… who would have figured?" Nick muttered contemplatively, one ear angled a bit to the side in a quizzical manner that caused her to start giggling again. "All I knew is that the CD sales were pretty bad." He mumbled a bit more, but through her giggles she was pretty sure she heard him wrong because she thought he said something about foisting them off on Duke to make a profit.

Judy giggled again, "You are such an old floggey Nick! No one buys CD's anymore, not even out in Bunnyborrow! That music video got passed around on the net. It wasn't even copyrighted for some reason, so everyone pirated the carrot mashing hell out of it. There has to be a few dozen remixes of it too. I don't know a single friend of mine that actually paid for a copy of that video."

Nick's ear ticked in an irritated manner and he muttered, "I am _not_ an old floggey, and getting a copyright required all sorts of paper work, the kind of paperwork that could lead to _taxes_."

Judy froze as Nick continued to grumble about stupid legal requirements, taxes and hustles backfiring. Her mind started replaying the old video on a loop, over and over again, seeing the fox in the video, the smirking fox, the smirking fox with _green_ eyes.

 _~Hey hey, Mister Fox, what are you doing in the garden again? Hey hey, Mister Fox, would you take me home to your den?~_

 _~Hey hey, Mister Fox, can you be my lover boy? Hey hey, Mister Fox, will you be my foxy toy?~_

"-I swear," Nick continued grumbling, "getting the licenses for the pawpsicle gig was almost impossi-… Judy? … what are you doing?"

Judy ignored Nick as he trailed off and with both of her paws on holding his muzzle, shifted his head to look at it from a different angle.

"Stupid dim light." Judy muttered irritated as she leaned in close trying to see Nick better in the bad light.

Nick looked rather confused as she turned his head again examining it, leaning in so close their noses almost touched.

"It can't be…" she muttered to herself trailing off as her thoughts whirled, Nick's green eyes meanwhile staring back at her, completely baffled, as she continued her examination.

 _It can't be! Nick couldn't be Mister Fox, he doesn't have a silly pompadour._

But the analytical police portion of her mind disagreed, _Mammals can change their fur-styles, and there_ _ **are**_ _such things as wigs! Look at him! Besides the hair, he's an exact match!_

 _No, this just has to be my mind superimposing Nick into that video. It's been a long time since I've even seen it!_

 _And why was he so irritated about the copyright? Humm?_

 _It could have just reminded him of one of his hustles…._

 _Really? He seems rather well informed about that particular music video. And if we're talking about hustles, that was a low budget music video and the only one produced by Mister Fox._

 _Your suggesting that music video was a hustle?!_

 _Your saying that pop music_ _ **isn't**_ _a hustle?_

 _It's music! Its not a hustle!_

 _Uh-huh. What about Justin Beaver? Think that's not a hustle?_

 _'…'_

 _Told you so. And do you think Slick here wouldn't have tried a hustle like that? One that could make a lot of money with little effort? That, and he seems to know an awful lot about it…_

 _Nick knows about pretty much every hustle that you could possibly pull! He's like a hustle encyclopedia! He knows about every type of money making scheme that anyone could ever do, its one reason he's such a good cop, but that doesn't mean he's been part of all of them!_

 _You have to admit, it's the type of easy money hustle that fits his M. O._

 _That doesn't mean-_

 ** _And_** _, he's a perfect match! That's strike two_

 _That wouldn't be admissible in a court! The hair is still different not to mention the light is bad here and my memory of that video is years old! Any good lawyer would get that comparison thrown out._

 _Okay forget the face then. Remember the tail? It had a black tip just like Nick's, about a paw-span of black at the end._

Judy dropped Nick's head ignoring his surprised yelp as it flopped back into her lap and the even louder startled yelp when she leaned over him and grabbed his tail.

 _See!_ Her mind said triumphantly, as she ran her paw through his tail examining it in minute detail, _It **is** the tail from that video!_

 _I could still just be seeing what I want to see…_ Judy debated uncertainly,

 _Then pull up that video again on ewetube as soon as you get home, confirm it and then use it to blackmail Nick into giving you an in person rendition!_

 _I can't blackmail Nick!_

 _Puftt, you've done it before, you even have his confession already recorded,_

Judy ran her paws through Nick's tail again, biting her lip with indecision, as that other part of her mind wheedled and equivocated the morality of it and then resorted to flat out bribery.

 _Oh come on, You have the opportunity and excuse here to get Nick alone and_ _ **shirtless**_ _! Even if he wasn't the fox in that video he still knows that song and dance, and you've got enough circumstantial evidence to 'convince' him to do the dance for you! Think of it! You can get him in those_ _ **tight**_ _shorts with_ _ **no**_ _shirt shaking this amazingly soft tail around just for you…_

"Carrots?!…"

Judy was in the middle of the worst mental dilemma she'd ever faced. She hadn't had any trouble using the tax information she'd found against Nick back then but it had been to save Mr. Otterton… and Nick had been a real ass back before she'd gotten to know him. This though, this would be manipulating him solely for her own enjoyment.

"Judy?! *groan* *pant* what are you doing?"

This wouldn't be like their normal quips and jokes, no… this would be because she was fantasizing and lusting after Nick. She knew it, knew it was wrong and despite everything, she could feel herself losing the mental debate. She wanted him so badly and what was the harm? He didn't ever need to know that she'd done it just so she could ogle him, and it wouldn't hurt his chances of getting the vixen he was after to fall in love with him. She'd never know.

"Judy! *pant* oh Karma! Judy, my tail!"

 _That's right_ , Judy tried justifying to herself _, I wouldn't be touching him, remember what Skye said? There's no harm if I just look, it's not like I'm going to take the chance to feel up his tail-_

Nick gave out a moaning whine and buried his muzzle into Judy's lap, snapping her back to reality. She looked down at the shaking, panting fox sprawled over the small bench with his ears back and eyes tightly shut as he pushed his head into her stomach and lap in a desperate distressed manner. He gave out a pained sounding whine as he shuddered more violently, his face scrunching hard as his claws dug into the benchseat to either side of her.

It was only then that she noticed that she'd just ran her paw through his tail, right from the very base down to it's black furred tip and was about to do it again.

There was a moment of complete blankness in Judy's mind as she took in that fact that she was _totally_ feeling up Nick's tail.

She wasn't just being a little too gregarious or cuddly, and from what she understood from her discussion with Skye with Nick being a fox, she was practically _molesting_ him, her partner, her best friend, her secret crush. She, Judy Hopps was abusing trust of the mammal she cared for most in the world.

An angry roar echoed down the tunnel to where they were slowly floating like the vocalized wrath of a primordial god and Judy's moment of blankness was crushed like a stomped soda can as what she'd just done to Nick hit her.

* * *

Jack took a moment's break from their increasingly frenzied make out session to breath as a rather angry sounding roar echoed down the tunnel.

Skye giggle, the vibrations from her chest passing lightly through him from where he lay on top of her longer form that was spread across the huge bench seat.

"I think someome upset a kittycat." She said giggling, before kissing him lightly once. Then she stretched languidly underneath him arching up just a bit so that her tail could swish to the other side. The motion sent different parts of her lithe body pushing and stretching against him in a manner that had his pulse skyrocketing.

"Humm…" she hummed happily stretching a bit more, "Is that a stick and berries I feel down there Mr. 'humper?" she said with a predatory smile as she arched her hips lightly pressing against another part of him that had skyrocketed right along with his pulse.

" _Skye_!" Jack groaned, partly from arouse but more from that stupid name. She only laughed happily though and kissed the tip of his nose, which mollified him… somewhat... mostly.

"Gods, do I hate that name. I think Agent U assigned that one to me out of pure spite." He mumbled into Skye's neck, making her giggle again. He smiled, listening to the light crystal clear noise. It was like summer sunshine and happiness made into sound, and he nuzzled her neck, delighting as he heard it again. He couldn't help from imagined what it might be like if they had a daughter that giggle like that.

"Hey, Skye?" he asked softly, slowing his nuzzling, and she hummed in a happy easy response to his question. So he continued taking the plunge and voicing his thoughts, "You know how we talked about having our own family someday?"

Skye stilled under him and was silent for a bit before speaking, "Yes… I thought that after we talked to Doctor Badger about the possibilities of having our own kits, we decided that starting a family wasn't a good idea then, what with running around the world on secret missions and everything. I thought we were going to wait and talk about it sometime later in the future?"

Jack looked up into her eyes that seemed far away visiting old memories. He could remember that time too; They'd both been younger then, ready to take on the world together, wanting to go everywhere and see everything, but now… now there was a quiet longing in Skye's still form as she seemed to think back to that particular conversation.

He nuzzled her softly getting her attention before quietly saying, "Want to talk about it now?"

Her eyes snapped into focus looking at him and he felt the suddenly quick beat of her heart as his chest pressed against hers.

"It's has been a while since then," Jack said still watching her, "And I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We've seen the world, Skye and it's been fun," he ran his paw along the fur on the back of her paw before their fingers laced together, "but I think I'm ready for a different kind of adventure…" Jack gave her a small smile and squeezed her paw lightly, "that is… if you're ready to come along on that adventure too?" he asked and then waited for her response.

Skye was perfectly still except for the beating of her heart as she stared back at him; he wasn't sure in the dim interior of the tunnel and it may have just been a trick of the bad light but her eyes seemed to shine wetly. Finally, he felt her take a breath and squeeze his paw back, before saying, "You know that kind of adventure isn't going to be as flashy as what we're used to… and our boss is going to throw a fit."

Jack grinned, "Might not be flashy but it'll be just as exciting in its own way, and our boss will get over it. Plus, it's not like we have to completely give up our jobs to have a family."

Skye kissed him before grinning herself and asking with mock sternness, "You're not planning on bringing our _kits_ along with us on missions are you?"

"Well…" Jack said smirking, "Now that you mention it, new parents out for their first family vacation would make for a great cover story. Maybe we could even get another agent to babysit while we have an evening alone for some private time and maybe a bit of sneaking around too."

Skye squeezed his paw again, grinning broadly as her tail thumped on the seat.

"You, Mr. Savage are completely incorrigible."

"And you, Mrs. Savage should already know that." He replied.

She kissed him again before whispering, "Reckless, that's what you are."

He kissed her back, "Yes, but you stop me before I get into trouble; you balance me out."

"Do I now?" she said and shifted under him, a glint coming into her eyes before she rolled him over on the seat and kissed him. Not lightly, not teasingly; it was a deep, demanding kiss filled with passion and lust and Jack let it envelop him. Skye's paw was moving, doing something around his waist, fiddling with their pants but she pushed harder into the kiss, demanding more from him and for a moment, Jack forgot about everything else but the kiss.

Then the kiss ended and Jack groaned. Skye, smirking now, whispered into his ear, "I think your reckless habits are rubbing off on me Jack."

"Can't help it," Jack replied teasingly, "That's what happens when we spend so much time cuddling and rubbing against each other."

Skye pulled back just enough so that he could see the bright smile on her face and a devious glint in her eyes. Her beautiful sandy white fur seemed to nearly glow in the dark as she straddled him.

"Hummm… I guess you're right." She looked at him, smiling predatorially, "I do love rubbing up against you," she pushed down against him, thrumming deeply as Jack gasped, feeling her suddenly take him.

She settled down atop him, surrounding him with a warm slick heat, and chest still vibrating with her hum, leaned down whispering to him, "You were saying something about starting a family right?" she nipped his long ear and pulled up, before arching back onto him as he bucked up involuntarily meeting her. "Said you wanted to go on _that_ adventure together right?" she whispered, moving rhythmically and her other paw found his remaining free one and grasped it as she let out a small moan into his ear as they met again.

She slowed, teasing him, and whispered again, "You should know by now Jack, that I'll go with you anywhere, on any adventure, so long as we can go together."

Jack tried to keep his wits about him as Skye's took him again but this time slowly settling against him, grinding her hips against his and squeezing tight around him as the fur through their unbuttoned pants meshed and matted between them.

"Skye…" Jack said and kissed at the thicker winter fur around her neck, "You know we can't start that adventure right this moment…" he trailed into a groan, squeezing her paws as Skye pulled back and then pushed back against him in one fluidly quick motion.

Her breathing was becoming harder, "Call it practice…" she said with a smirk, now panting lightly and squeezing around him again as their hips met, giving out a small needy whine, "I'll talk to Doc Badger tomorrow… get off the birth control…" she rocked against him, again and again before kissing him, making a plaintiff sound as she stared speeding up.

" _Jack_ …" Skye said, eyes closing, as she pressed her muzzle against him, nuzzling desperately and he understood. Sometimes Skye like to play and tease, draw out their love making into a long extended intimate cuddling session. It was a special glorious torture for him given his nature as a hare, having his mate, his vixen, take control and bring him right up to that edge and hold him there. But this wasn't one of those times. There was too much need, too much passion and lust. He could feel it in the way she moved against him, in the heat of her around him, in the way she held his paws and nuzzled and nipped and kissed. Despite her bit of teasing this wasn't one of those slow smoldering love making sessions, this was more like throwing a match into a pool of gasoline; it was a hot hungry inferno. Jack could hear it burning, building in the way she called his name and knew what she wanted, what she was asking. She was always fond of telling him that there were advantages in him having the natural speed and quickness of a hare after all.

Jack didn't need much incentive from his mate, her fire had already engulfed him as well and he was burning with his own need. He rolled her over like she'd done earlier and kissed her neck and breast causing her to arch her back up off the seat with a moan as he took over their tempo. Skye surrender control, submitting to him, panting and making small ecstatically pleased noises as he let his nature take over and sped up.

* * *

(A little while before)

Nadine was in a hellish bliss.

On one hand she seemed to be in a sort of fantasy come real, but on the other she couldn't move much for fear of tipping the boat and waking up from this not-so-unreal-dream she was having by way of a cold watery splash.

She tried hard to stifle a moan as Ralph, devil that he was, continued to tease her.

 _I swear that if he doesn't stop toying with me I'll drag if back to my bedroom by the tail and… oh gods…_

Nadine tried to stifle a moan as she gave a small involuntarily buck, feeling Ralph's hardness press against her through their clothes while his paw teased her. The boat rocked with her motion and she desperately tried to stop herself before the boat's motion became any more unstable, but Ralph's soft yet slightly rough paw pad pressed against her again in just the right way, and she shuddered violently with the conflicting needs to press into that wonderful paw and yet not move and flip the boat.

She loosened up her mouths hold on his shoulder after the tremor passing though her had settled down and mewed with a contrasting mix of relief and unfulfilled blazing need. Ralph said something as he nuzzled her but she couldn't understand him through the white sparks that seemed to be popping like firecrackers in her mind.

He nuzzled her again, as his other paw, the sneaky one currently wrapped around behind her that had unclasped her bra earlier, dipping past the base of her tail as he continued to slowly move against her in her lap. Her vision almost whited out as his pawpad pushed against her, his finger dipping in and out lightly like he was testing the temperature in a pool of water.

 _If he doesn't stop that and just jump in I'm going to bite him for real!_

Ralph pulled back, lightening his touch and she made a noise half way between a whine and a growl as she used her paws to force him closer, trying to get him to continue. His touch remained vexingly light though as he trailed a row of kisses and soft nips up her neck and then whispered into her ear in a teasingly almost sing song way.

" _I_ found where you've been hiding your tranq pistol!"

Nadine gave a harder squeeze on his shoulder with her jaws before unlatching her maw and booped his nose hard with hers, growling as menacingly as she could,

"Ralph Wolford! If you don't finish what you've started I'll spend the rest of our days together making you regret it!" she grabbed his teasing paw with hers and forced it back down against her.

Nadine let out a mewling moan and kissed him as hard as she dared, still worried about flipping the boat as he _finally_ stopped his toying around his paw, though she kept hers over his just to make sure he wouldn't stop. Despite last night and this morning she was more pent up than she could ever remember being in her life; She wasn't going to last long, not at all, not with Ralph being the one touching her, she moaned into their kiss as she felt herself nearing that final edge… and her phone went off breaking the moment.

Nadine broke the kiss and let loose a roar unlike any she had ever given in her life. It was a pure unbridled expression of anger and fury manifested in a single terrible sound that shook the boat and echoed off the walls of the tunnel seeming to amplify on itself until it seemed like the very walls might break and crumble under its onslaught.

Ralph had frozen and was staring at her with slightly dilated eyes as she finished giving voice to her rage and looked back at him.

" **YOU**." She glared at him with a burning intensity as she ripped her phone out of her pocket with her free paw, keeping the other over his, "DON'T EVEN THINK OF MOVING THOSE PAWS AWAY. YOU AREN'T DONE YET!" Nadine growled threateningly, and Ralph, usually completely unphased by her roars or snarls, nodded his head quickly.

There was a sharp cracking sound from her other paw and Nadine eased her grip on the ringing phone, bringing the device, now with a spider web of cracks running through its screen, up to her ear.

"MEGAN," Nadine snarled furiously into the phone, "When I get home, I'm going to tie you to a chair in your apartment and gag you so you can't interrupt me and Ralph **_again_**! I swear you're like Murphy incarnate, _always_ interrupting at the **_worst_** moments!"

Nadine's mountainous raging fury of anger died in the next instant.

"Naddy dear?" her mother said and Nadine nearly choked as what she'd been about to yell at Megan suddenly lodge in her throat and made her eyes bulge, "Oh honey I'm sorry if we're interrupting you and your new mate, though… that's actually why your father and I are calling. And, it's probably a good thing we caught you two before you get into any sort of mating frenzy."

"Yes, and when were you going to tell us you'd picked a mate?" her father chimed in sounding if anything, hurt, "You didn't think we wouldn't accept you and your wolf did you?"

Amid the rising terror that Nadine was trying to hold back, her dad somehow managed to heap on a whole load of guilt on too. But as she struggled with all that, her father's voice became stern,

"Now is your mate there? It _sounded_ like he's there, and I need to have a few words with him."

Ralph made a choked whining sound and looked pleadingly at Nadine as if she could tell him what to do.

"Speak up son." Her father's voice said sharply, "Why are you trying to elope with our daughter? We felines might not be as tradition bound as you wolves but that doesn't mean we don't have any, and no child of mine is going to have to skulk around to get married. You and I are going to have a bit of a conversation when we get to Zootopia."

" _You're coming to Zootopia!?_ " Nadine shrieked, her voice an octave or two higher than normal.

"Of course we are Naddy!" her mom replied as if that should have been obvious, "Besides everything else, we'd be irresponsible parents if we didn't sit down with you two and explain some of the details of mating now that-"

" _MOM_!" Nadine shrieked again before gaining some control of her voice, "You _don't_ need to tell me anything about _sex_! I already know how that works! I'm _not_ a teenager!"

"Oh, Naddy." Her mother sounded more amused by her outburst than anything else, "Unprotected sex with your mate is a bit different, especially when you go into heat."

"Right." Her father chimed in, "Neither of you would want to get hurt. You haven't gone into heat yet have you?"

" _DAD_!" Nadine did shriek this time.

"Oh, that's a yes if I ever heard one!" her mother said before speaking presumably to her dad, "Honey, see if you can get tickets for the train tonight rather than the one tomorrow morning, the sooner we get there the better. She'll be a lot more sensitive than she's used to during heat, and without a condom you males and your so called 'love claws' are _far_ more noticeable."

Ralph looked at her with a horrified and confused expression and whispered, "Love _whats_?"

"Oh dear, don't they teach you kids anything in school now-a-days?" he mother pitched in, having apparently overheard Ralph. " _Mommm,_ " Nadine groaned desperately, trying to stop her but she just rolled right over her objections, " _Keratinized penile spines_ , dear, the barbs protuberances you males have on your end of the reproductive organ. They help with the reproduction process but while they might help bring a quick orgasm for us they can be a bit painful sometimes, _particularly_ in heat." Nadine's fantasy-dream-come-real was morphing into a full-on nightmare as her mother continued unabated despite her attempted protests, "It's why you have to be careful rutting with your mate during heat when passions are running high; having to visit the hospital because things in the bedroom got _too_ feisty and you accidentally clawed or bite your mate to hard is no fun at all."

" _Wait?! Spines?!..._ _ **Hospital**_?!" Ralph squeaked, his eyes wide as saucers. He looked down to where his paw, with hers still over it, disappeared beneath her unbuttoned jeans, and then back up at Nadine.

" _Ralphhhh_!" Nadine whined desperately, looking at his wide eyed expression with his ears splayed in an freaked out manner, "It's not like she's making it out to be-"

"Natasha!" her Dad said cutting in, "Your scaring scarring Nadine's mate! See, this is why we need to have this talk in person, and serious injuries usually only happen when things get way out of hand, _plus_ her mate is a wolf. Wolves don't have spines, I checked. See here, this article says they have this 'bulbus glandis'. Supposed to swell up and keep them locked together during mating."

"Oh... yes forgot where not dealing with another feline, let me see that article… _oh_ … well!… will that work though? She's bigger than him."

"We have pictures of the two of them, He's not _that_ much smaller than her,"

"I think you're right, plus look how much this it's supposed to swell. He might not have spines, but she'll certainly feel _that_ … _especially_ since she's going into heat." Nadine was now the one staring a bit wide eyed at Ralph. She suddenly became acutely aware of the visible bulge in his clothes as her eyes, against her will, tracked down his front until they settled and locked on it.

It wasn't like she didn't know that wolves had somewhat different equipment… she might have done some clandestine internet research at some point while being Ralph's police partner and all… like maybe right after the academy… and just out of sheer curiosity, _certainly_ not for any other reason.

 _It's knot_ _ **that**_ _big_ , she thought to herself, looking at the bulge… but then again she'd never actually seen Ralphs equipment either, dreamed about it, yes; felt it, sort of (there had always been clothes between them… unfortunately.)

Ralph's paw, still pressed against her with hers over it, twitched nervously sending a jolt through her. She tuned out for a moment as her parents debated spines and knots, remembering this morning, remembering how he'd suddenly seemed _quite_ a bit larger as she pressed against him when he'd howled. And just like this morning an irrational giddy glee swept through her in a hot wave. She felt like giggling manically, and tried to control the reaction, all the while still acutely aware of Ralphs paw under hers.

"Nadine?" Ralph asked quietly, seeming a bit hysterical himself with a sort of horrified, confused and embarrassed arousal. She looked up meeting his eyes, giggled (only slightly crazily) and blushed violently, realizing that he wouldn't even need his nose to figure out her current mental state with his paw pressed up against her wet heat like it was. Then she heard what her parents were saying,

" - _and_ they'll be stuck together, what if it's a bit too much for Naddy? With her going into heat and all… it's not like they can call a time out if they're stuck together…"

"They'll be fine… probably. He can just usual the traditional mounting position the first couple of times until they get used to it. Should be natural enough for him anyway, mammal's do call it doggy style after all."

"Hummm… I think you're right, though he might want to bite and hold her scruff. Should help keep her calmer and-"

"Nadine," Ralph whispered desperately, sounding a bit hysterical, "Are you parents discussing the best way for us to have _sex_?"

She groaned and let her head flop against him, "I told you this would happen! And you thought dealing with your parents was going to be difficult!"

"Oh Naddy, there's no reason to be embarrassed." Her mother cut in, trying unsuccessfully to calm her down, "Mating is just a part of life like anything else. This is all just natural actions and instincts. There's nothing out of the normal here."

"Dear, she's taking a wolf as her mate, that's not quite 'normal'," her dad said, and there was a light smacking sound, before he quickly added, "Not that there's _anything_ wrong with that! Mating is still just a natural part of life no matter what species you are!"

"Right, and any reasonable mammal shouldn't find such a normal part of life embarrassing, why when we talked to Ralph's parents-"

 _"WHAT_?!" Ralph spluttered a look of total fear coming over his face, " _You spoke to my_ **_parents_**?!"

"They called us," Nadine's father said calmly, then added a bit sternly, "They weren't happy about you two trying to elope either."

"We're _Not_ eloping!" Nadine snapped, finally regaining enough of her wits to do what she probably should have done right after realizing who was on the other end of the call, "We're just dating! Now if you don't mind, me and Ralph are busy right now, we've got to go, bye!" she hit the end call button hard enough that another crack appeared on the screen.

She wanted to scream in frustration, but her attention refocused on Ralph who was full on panicking.

"Nadine! We're screwed! If my parents found out before I could tell them… oh gods they think we're _eloping_?!" He reclaimed his paw from her, much to her displeasure, and pulled out his own phone. He turned it on and the screen showed a hundred and thirteen missed calls. Ralph's ears went flat and he slumped into her.

"We're done for! Goners! Dead! Oh gods, if they find us…"

"Ralph calm down," Nadine said not sounding very calm herself, "We can-" she was cut off as his phone, now with its silent mode turned off, rang with an incoming call.

Ralph's eyes were huge, like he realized he'd accidentally picked up a rattlesnake.

Something about the way Ralph looked at the phone in terror broke the last bit of Nadine's restraint.

"Okay, I am done with this! I am done with others butting into our business!" She snatched the phone out of his paw and hitting the answer button, snarled, "What do you want?!"

* * *

Cassandra Wolford paced as she called her sons phone again while waited for her husband to get the tickets so they could finish tracking down their runaway kit and his new mate.

"Try to steal my child away will she? We'll just see about that!" she huffed right before the call finally went through.

A voice she recognized from of some of her encounters with her son and his police partner snarled through the phone.

"What do you want?"

"Don't you take that tone with me!" she snapped back icily, "Where are you and my son right now?"

"That's none of your business." The tiger responded just as icily, and there was a faint panicked whisper of, "Nadine, what are you doing?!"

"None of my business? None of my _Business_?! You made it my _business_ when you decided to steal my son from our pack!" she snarled back into the phone.

"Mother!" Ralph's voice came through, abet a bit shakily, "She did not 'steal' me! And whatever you've heard, it's not the truth!"

"Oh, she didn't did she?" Cassandra huffed angrily, "Then care to explain why you're with her right now instead of on that date set up between our pack and the Silverclaws's? _Humm_? Have you been with her all the _other_ times you've skipped pack arranged dates too?" The silence from her son was all the confirmation she needed to know that he had.

"He's not going on any other date today, tomorrow or any time in the future because he's dating _me_!", Fangmeyer's voice snarled out of the phone, before back tracking, "Wait, Arghh! I mean that he's asked me out and we've agreed to start dating! We are just starting to date, and Ralph, will _not_ be going on any 'dates' with _anyone else_! I don't care what 'pack' reason you have for it!"

"Don't you try changing your story little miss tiger! What you know about how a pack works could fit in a thimble! And if you weren't stealing him out from under us, then he would have at least told us he was planning on courting you!"

"Umm…" Ralph cut in hesitantly, "since we haven't _technically_ started dating yet, I can tell you now that I'm planning on courting Nadine, right?"

"Oh, no. It's far too late for that. I know all about your morning romp and your plans to elope and move in together! You can't just mark someone and _then_ claim you're planning on courting them! You're no lone wolf and that's not how any civilized pack works!"

There was a strangled squeaking sound from Fangmeyer as Ralph suddenly tried vehemently denying that he'd marked her yet.

"Don't think you're going to be able to talk your way out of this one Ralph. You two are in deep enough trouble as it is! Our pack is in an uproar because of you two and Bill had to cover for you, _Ralph_ , so that the Silverclaws's pack didn't feel slighted! You two can forget whatever notions you have about some 'secret romance'. You two are coming back to the pack grounds where we can keep an eye on both of you until Mr. and Mrs. Fangmeyer get here tomorrow and we can sort this whole mess out before it gets any worse."

"Oh no! No! No! NO! You are _not_ bringing my parents into this!" the tiger objected, voice sounding strained.

"Listen here girl," Cassandra said putting her paw up to her temple and rubbing, "You made the decision to pursue my son and now you're going to have to pay the price for sneaking around with him. You have two choices. You and Ralph can come quietly or I'll drag both of you back by the tails."

"Oh you just try that!" she snarled, almost roared, and Cassandra heard Ralph's voice saying, "Nadine, calm down! Calm down you're going to flip us!"

"Fine, the hard way it is," Cassandra growled, "I will _not_ let my son run off to be some outcast lone wolf and I will not let you two create some scandal to ruin our pack! Ralph is _not_ leaving our pack and if that means I have to hog tie you, drag you back and _force_ a tiger into our pack, then so be it. I'll stuff you into a wedding dress, and perform the marriage myself."

There was a strangled sounding cry of " _What_!?", a startled shout from Ralph and then a splash and the line went dead.

* * *

 _'Never let them see that they get to you'_

Part of Nick mused on how after years, decades, of practicing that little rule of his, he could fool just about anyone...

Except for one too smart, too perceptive, too lovable bunnyrabbit.

She had a knack for getting past his defenses; for always finding the one angle he wasn't prepared to cover. She was the only mammal that could hustle him like this or get him to talk himself into a corner instead of out of it.

 _At least she only thinks I know the song,_ Nick thought as he continued to grumble to himself, _Gods if she ever finds out that I was the one in that video, I'll never hear the end of it! and if Clawhauser where to find out… *shudder* , not even Robin Hood himself could save me if that were to happen. I'd lose all credibility! I can't believe I let Finnick talk me into that! Easy money my ass! And to think it even ended up being somewhat popular and we just couldn't collect on it! Arghh! I told him it wasn't worth doing without being able to sell it through all the normal methods, which we couldn't do. If he had just listened-_

Nick's internal tirade cut off as two soft but firm paws clasped his cheeks and yanked his head forward and then side to side like an old grandparent insistently inspecting a young kit.

Nick blinked once in surprise as Judy angled his head, examining him with a look of extreme focus.

"Judy?" Nick asked, slightly confused and amused at her strange behavior, not that he minded much… or at all. Unlike a fox, her paws didn't have pawpads, just very fine fur that was silky smooth and her claws were tiny blunt things that pressed against his cheeks with just a faint touch. He rather liked the feeling of her holding his head like this even if he had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

 _Maybe it's a bunny thing?_ Nick thought with a mental shrug and gave a small smile, asking her in a quizzically, almost playful way, "What are you doing?"

She seemed not to hear him at all. Her brow furrowed, and she leaned in close to him and for a brief second Nick had the wildly irrational hope that she was going to kiss him, but she just muttered, "Stupid dim light." as she turned his head a bit examining it from a different angle.

Nick's tail which had been about to explode into motion slumped, and he had to fight back a quick wave of longing so deep that he wanted to howl.

 _Stupid, Stupid, STUPID fox. She's a bunny. She's your best friend, be happy that you have that much._

There was a murmured "It can't be…" from Judy, as she shifted his head again. That comment caught his attention, she'd sounded... hopeful? Disbelieving? Stunned?

 _What? Is my fur messed up? I spent two hours groom myself this morning so I'd look my best today around Judy. Maybe one of the rollercoasters tussled it or… oh gods I don't have blueberry stains all over my muzzle do I? Is that it?"_

Nick was about to ask her when she suddenly let go of him. He hadn't noticed how far over toward her she'd pulled him or how much he'd been leaning into her touch, so when she let go, he flopped down face first into her lap with a startled yelp, then yelped louder completely surprised as she leaned over him and grabbed his tail with both paws.

She didn't yank it or tug on it, but his tail was sensitive and he _wasn't_ prepared for her to grab it and suddenly pull it closer to her.

He froze for a second out of sheer shock as Judy started fiddling with the tip of his tail, bent over him. She ran a paw through the fur at the tip, almost experimentally and there was a rush of warmth and pleasure that washed through him.

If he'd been prepared for it, he could have hidden his reaction. Muted it so that he didn't lose himself to her touch. But just like always Judy had caught him off guard.

Nick gasped at the feeling, but his head was in Judy's lap with her leaning over him in the narrow confines of the boat, practically boxing his head in, and his sudden startled intake of air brought with it a wave of her scent that hit him like a boxer slamming an unexpected hook into an already stunned foe.

Her scent flooded him, filled him, surrounded him.

Like a kit at the beach that's sweep under by an unexpected wave, he was suddenly drowning under a roiling sea of her scent, unable to find his way back to the surface. His mind floundered while the feeling of her stroking his tail again was like the distant crash of another wave somewhere above him that sent his mind careening once more.

Judy shifted slightly, still fiddling with his tail as Nick broke through to the surface and managed to gasp out a startled questioning "Carrots?!..."

But she didn't reply, didn't even seem to hear him. And her paw ran through the fur of his tail tracing nearly its whole length and he was shoved back under as the wave of pleasure that came along from her touch ran through him, over him and he found himself once more fighting to try and resurface and not drown in her scent and touch.

His body shook and a sliver of fear ran through him paralleling the pleasure. It would be so easy to give in, to let all his worries go and give into her. To not fight to regain his control. But he knew what would happen if he did that and Nick feared it. Feared what it would do to his chance at happiness, at his chance of being with Judy or even being just her friend. If he let himself go in that blissful roiling storm of feelings that was surging through him, he wouldn't just sit there and enjoy it, he'd take her, claim her right there. He wouldn't be able to stop himself.

She stroked his tail again and he shuddered, breathing in her wonderful sweet scent, a mix of her normal everyday scent like liquid comfort, that was tinged liberally with the scent of her arousal. He'd gotten used to that particularly subtle and intoxicating aspect of her scent since, as she'd embarrassedly explained the one time he'd asked, being a bunny whose species was renowned for their ability to multiplying, they had drives to match. But while he's gotten used to that particular flavor of her scent that seemed to always be around in at least faint amounts, this time with his nose nestled into her lap it hit him like a hammer blow.

"Judy!" Nick managed to say in a frantic growl as she stroked his tail again before he groaned and had to pant hard for a brief moment. He needed air desperately to clear his head but couldn't get any, his lungs only filled with her sweet aroma.

He gasped out again, " _What are you doing_?" in a frantic and confused voice as he fought to stay sane.

But Judy didn't answer. She didn't stop. Her paw moved through his fur, starting at the base of his tail, her tiny claws brushing lightly against his skin and he cried out and cursed as he struggled with himself. His senses were overloading, and Nick was reeling, trying to fight the crashing waves of sensual gleeful pleasure, that she was bringing to him. He wanted more of it. More of her. Craved her. Needed her. There was a purely savage side within him straining wildly against its bonds, stretching the chains that bound it, starting to snap links one by one as it screamed.

She was _his_. His and no one else's. She was _his_ mate, his to love, his to claim and protect. There was nothing else in the world more important than her.

And that was the problem. There _was_ nothing more important in the world to him than her. And as much as he needed her, needed her like some mammal dying of thirst in a dessert needed water, taking her, claiming her like that savage part of him frantically insisted he do _right this very second_ , would hurt her, would violate her trust in him. It would destroy her happiness, her smile, her laugh, because he would have done the unforgivable... because she didn't want him in that way.

He took another desperate gasping breathing and _she_ flooded through his sense of smell as her paw moved through his tail causing pure sensation to travel up his spine.

The beast within him broke free, raging madly, and Nick fought against it with every last bit of himself. His whole body shook and his paws that had started to move to grab her, hold her, draw her nearer, clawed into the seat to either side of her, gouging deep as his rational side battled his primal one. His need _for_ her and his need to _protect_ her, waging war with each other, the outcome teetering back and forth on a razor's edge.

Nick pushed his muzzle into her, closer to her, literally burying his nose into her clothes and fur.

Her scent was an intoxicant that the beast craved madly but it also reminded him of her, of his always bright and happy bunny, his Judy. And it was enough… barely.

Judy's paw had stopped, lying motionless on his tail, and he let out a pained whine, half out of relief that she'd stopped her blissful torment and half out of a despairing sense of loss.

Nick tried to collect himself but he'd barely started when he faintly heard an echoing roar. And before he had so much as a moment to pull himself together, Judy had let go of his tail like it had burned her and started spewing apologies.

" -So so _so_ sorry! I wasn't thinking! I didn't mean to-! Oh gods Nick, I'm _sorry_!-"

Her sudden panic hit Nick like a shot of pure adrenaline, sending a spike of fear through him that silenced every other thought and feeling he had. Then his chin thumped painfully onto the seat as Judy, still apologizing, tried scooting as far away from him as she could, not that she was very successful beyond moving far enough away to let his muzzle fall off her lap in the confines of the boat.

"Oh gods, you're going to hate me now, you're going to-"

"Judyyyy," Nick whined desperately, trying to get her attention as his chin throbbed painfully but she only tried scouting further away, tears tracing her face, as she wedged herself into a tight ball in the corner of the seat.

He tried again but rather than calming her though, he only seemed to upset her more and she curled in on herself, her ears pulled down hiding her face as she continued her sobbing apology that was ripping out Nick's heart. It was like when she was had come back after the press conference and found him under the bridge, but worse, far worse.

Nick did the only thing he could think of in his panicked state, he moved to hug her, like he'd done so often since that day under the bridge… or tried too. He hadn't realized just how deeply he'd dug his claws into the faux wood of the bench seat, and his move forward to hug her turned into a sudden awkward flop that slammed his chin painfully against her leg as his paws refused to lift away from the seat.

Nick gave another groan, but the sharp jolt through his muzzle was nothing compared to the sound coming from the huddled bunny. He tried calling her name, nearly shouting it but she just shrunk back into herself all the more, sobbing a repetitive, " _I'm sorry, I'm sorry_ ,"

Seeing her like that, and being unable to do anything to help her was too much for him and Nick lost it.

A frustrated angry growl at his inability to do anything torn out of him and Nick snapped his muzzle forward sinking his teeth into the cloth of Judy's pants and with his paws still stuck, pushed his chest up off the seat and yanked his head back under him. Judy's apologetic mantra was broken with a loud startled squeak as she was yanked away from the corner of the seat and under Nick.

With another growl, Nick let go of her and then unceremoniously flopped down protectively, his chest still rumbling angrily. There was another startled squeak from the bunny that suddenly found herself pinned underneath him but she'd stopped crying and apologizing so Nick gave halfway satisfied huff and rumbled before letting his head flop back down tiredly. The events of the past couple minuets had drained him. From her hustle to the unexpected move grabbing his tail to her emotional breakdown, _his_ emotions had been whiplashing back and forth from terror to ecstasy and he felt exhausted.

"Dumb bunny is going to be the death of me." he mumbled with his eyes closed, a bit of irritation more at the world in general than at Judy bleeding into his voice.

There was a blessed few moments where nothing happened. No sound or movement besides his angry protective growl that was diminishing to just a low rumble and the rapid heartbeat and slightly disjointed breathing of Judy pinned between him and the seat.

But it didn't last.

Judy finally seemed to break through her shock at his sudden move and squirmed slightly, then again as she hesitantly, questioningly asked, "N-Nick?"

Still feeling far more savage than rational, Nick lifted off her just enough so that he could angle his head down until his nose nearly pressed into hers as he growled out, "I don't know what you where panicking over, and frankly I don't care," he said looking hard down into her startled lavender eyes, pressing his nose against hers, stopping the rapid twitch that had started. He could see the glossy water film of tears still in her eyes and growled again, rumbling deep in his chest, "No." he narrowed his eyes, "No more crying. No more apologies. No more beating yourself up over whatever it is this time you overly emotional dumb bunny. I'm not moving until my happy smiling partner is back, do you understand?" he finished his voice rumbling dangerously. There was the slightest hesitant nod and Nick huffed and flopped back down, his head coming to rest against the top of hers so that she was all but buried under him. He grumbled to himself, the low rumble continuing the whole time. He felt exhausted, utterly depleted; he decided to just rest for a minute before trying to regain some control from the savage protective beast that was currently refusing to let his bunny move so much as an inch away from him.

* * *

"Come on, hurry up!" Skye hiss over to Jack.

"I am, I am." Jack replied, moving faster.

Skye looking back toward where she could see a light at the end of the tunnel, "Hurry! We've got like 30 seconds."

"Plenty of time." He said, though there was a faint hint of tension in his voice.

"Maid Marian save me," Skye huffed, rolling her eyes, "Here let me."

She reached over to the hare fumbling around in the dark and finished buttoning up his shirt and pants so it wouldn't look like they'd been up to anything _too_ unseemly while in the love tunnel. She smirked though, as her cherry red kiss marks still covered his face, neck and ears.

"See," She said finishing, rather pleased with how things had gone on their 'ride', "Told you being quick had its advantages, 2 rounds and nobody but us will be the wiser."

"I'm pretty sure that wolf and any other mammal with a decent nose is going to be the wiser." Jack said smoothing out his shirt.

"Nope," Skye said smirking, pulling a travel size can of Muskmask deodorizer from her small purse and spritzing herself then Jack, just enough to knock their scents down to (somewhat) respectable levels, "They'll just assume that we've had quite the makeout session." She said putting the deodorizer away just as they exited the tunnel. She gave Jack a kiss on the cheek, right where there was a sticky red cherry mark from a previous kiss.

"Ummm… Delicious." She said with a smirk just as there was a laugh and a (literal) wolf whistle from the exit dock as their large sized boat was pushed over to by some unseen mechanism that grated against the bottom of the craft until it merged with the small and mid sized boat channel at the dock and they could get out.

"Hey, 'Thumper. I thought you were supposed to be the charmer! Looks more like that vixen ate you alive!"

Jack's ears popped up as if he was about to make some snappy reply, but the sight of his kiss covered ears popping up drew laughs and giggles from everyone including Skye, before he could say anything.

Skye leaned over grinning and kissed him again, before whispering smugly, "See you should listen to my plans more often."

Jack just shook his head, though there was a smile across his face. "I always listen to your plans Skye," he hopped out of the boat and then held his paw down to help her up.

She took it, still smirking, "Jack, you only listen if you haven't already run off recklessly and gotten yourself in trouble."

"It's called being 'dashing' dear," Jack answered with a charming grin, "How else am I supposed to impress my girl?" he turned back forward to the wolf standing next to the tiger, "Right _Ms. Ramsbottom_..." He stopped and blinked before smirking, as his attention now fully on the two other mammals. "What happened to you two?"

Skye looked over and noticed for the first time that the wolf and tiger were soaked. They were sitting on a bench by the attendant's booth at the dock and toweling each other off. Fangmeyer blushed and looked down while Wolford just grinned.

"Come on Jack, a gentle-mammal never kisses and tells."

There was grunt as a moose wearing one of the parks uniforms walked over and dropped another set of dry towels next to them.

"What happened," The moose said rolling his eyes as if this wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with this, "Is that these two love birds got too frisky with each other and flipped their boat." He gave Skye and Jack a look and snorted, "Not that it looks like you two didn't give that a good try too." The attendant shook his antlers as he walked over to the boat they'd gotten out of and started moving it over to a line of other boats to move back around to the front of the ride.

"So..." Wolford said, picking up one of the new towels and starting to dry Fangmeyer's tail without any hesitation, "If we got dunked, and you two came out with new furstyles, what state do you think Wilde and Hopps will be in when they exit?"

Fangmeyer who'd blushed again when Wolford had started drying her tail, though she hadn't made any objection to it, grabbed the other dry towel and dropped it over the wolf's face before starting to dry his ears. "Given their track record," she huffed, as the wolfs muzzle sticking out from under the towel grinned happily, "The two of them probably found some sort of criminal operation and will come out of there with at least one mammal tussled up and ready to be carted of the precinct."

"Well," Jack said smirking, "Anyone want to take bets on that?"

* * *

Judy's usually meticulously ordered mind was a bit of a mess as she lay pinned under Nick, with his larger lithly predatory body all but smothered her. It was almost like one of their practice bouts in the precinct gym when he managed to pin her, but his chest continued to vibrate against hers in a rumbling growl that had an almost menacing edge to it. That certainly didn't help her straying, fracturing thoughts, and the conflicting urges from her instincts didn't help either. There was a small part of her that did not like having this predator, even her predator, trap her so easily, though that might have just been her wounded ego; but at the same time other instincts, stronger instincts _liked_ having this bigger stronger mammal, predator or not, protectively crouched over her and they only wanted to snuggle closer against him.

That little bit of cognitive dissonance certainly wasn't helping her mental state right now. The fox, her ancestral enemy, the bogey-mammal in all the tales told between bunnies to scare each other had her trapped, cornered. He had her pinned and he wasn't letting her go... And she didn't want him too.

He'd even snarled, pressing his muzzle right up to her nose with emerald eyes that had been blazing wildly, _savagely_ , and she'd been startled; startled that she really hadn't been scared. He'd been angry; she'd seen it in those eyes. He'd been very angry, angry and scared, but not angry at her. That angry fox had all but wrapped her up, seeming to growl and rumble threateningly at everything around them.

Judy wasn't one that needed protection; she'd worked hard to be able to stand on her own so that she didn't have to rely on anyone else, but even still, the feeling of being completely protected by someone else was... seductive. There was a part of her that wanted desperately to just stay there and let the big bad fox protect her, comfort her. She wanted to give herself to him, to have him be hers so that she didn't have to always be the only one looking out for herself.

Not that she didn't already seem to have that, a stray thought reminder her, Nick always seemed to be there for her.

But it wasn't enough, she wanted this protective caring fox all for her own. He could be ungodly irritating at times, but he was _always_ there, especially when she was at her lowest. He made her smile, he made her laugh, he made her happy and he made her feel safe no matter what else happened in the world.

Just like now.

Deserving it or not Judy let herself sink into the warm comforting feeling, pressing her nose into his shirt and the thicker fur of his ruff, letting his rumble and heavy musk roll through her, making all her problems and worries just… wash away.

All she'd been able to think about before was that she'd ruined everything. Coming back from her thoughts to find she'd been literally fondling his tail was like the moment right after her first press conference when the relation that she'd messed up, and messed up _bad_ , crashed over her. Sure, she'd touched Nick's tail before incidentally… mostly, but it had been part of their usual teasing. This though had been different; She hadn't been tweaking his nose or anything, she'd been blatantly petting him, fondling his tail. Even among bunnies, who were quite comfortable being touchy feely with their friends and family, that would have been far over the top for acceptable behavior, and with what Skye had told her about foxes… well over the top was a severe understatement.

She'd messed up spectacularly, horrifically, she'd screwed up everything in a manner she'd never be able to fix and yet Nick was still here. Still being the caring friend she wanted so much more from.

Thoughts about what Skye had said rolled through her mind along with all their past interactions, her hugs, and jabs and teasing pokes and nudges. It had been so normal for her but it must have been a strain on Nick, and she wondered why he put up with her. Why he must constantly be putting himself far out of his comfort zone.

For a brief moment she let herself believe that he wanted her like she wanted him. She let herself snuggle into his frame and hold him, let herself imagine that he was hers. It could _almost_ be the truth, with how close they were, with how he put himself out there for her, just to accommodate one silly little over emotional bunny, all just because she was his friend. She could almost convince herself that it was his sly way of telling her he loved her, loved her more than just as a friend. She might have been able to fully convince herself of that if it wasn't for the stupid carrot picking fact that she _knew_ he was in love with a _carrot-be-damned_ _vixen_.

Judy took in another breath, letting his thick musk fill and calm her sudden anger and jealousy at that. It helped settle the stray thoughts bouncing around her mind. Let her find her balance. She'd messed up but Nick was still here. Things would be alright.

With one last breath that sent his fur brushing against her muzzle as his musk filled her, she spoke up.

"Nick?"

He just rumbled a bit, his head nestling tighter against hers.

"Nick, I'm sorry. I screwed up… again."

His rumble became an unhappy growl.

"No, Judy. I said no more apologized. You didn't screw up anything."

"Yes, I did, Nick!" Judy said needing to excise her guilt. "When Skye was talking to me she told me how foxes are very sensitive about touch, about what it means to you all. It's not the same for bunnies and not only am I always pushing into your personal space but now I just went and completely felt up your tail! And now you're pushing yourself out there again to comfort _me_ , all because I'm just a _dumb_ _emotional_ bunny!"

There was a louder growl, and Nick's chest thrummed against her, "As you said Judy, you're a bunny. It's not the same for you so it doesn't matter."

"It matters to _you_ , Nick." Judy retorted a little bit angrily; being angry was better than crying again, "Even if you try to hide it like everything else it matters to you and I don't want to hurt my friend! My _best_ friend!"

His rumble quieted and he huffed.

"Fine Judy it matters to me, but I can make an exception for _my_ best friend if I damn well want too!"

"And what about the girl you're in love with Nick?" Judy said, fortified enough by her anger at the injustice she was casing Nick to bringing up what lay at the heart of all her recent pain, "I might have been wrong about thinking you were in love with Skye, but you're in love with _someone_."

 _Some Stupid Foxy Lady!_ She mentally seethed.

"How would that vixen feel if she saw me petting your tail or… or…"

"Or me laying atop you in a cheesy swan boat in the world's most ridiculously corny tunnel of love?" Nick finished with snort.

"YES!" Judy said and tried to thump Nick for his stupid sarcastic comments when she was trying to be serious, not that she was very successful, what with being trapped under him and all, "How are you going to win her over if I'm always too close to you? How would she react to another mammal always touching you?"

Nick actually laughed and Judy tried thumping him with her leg, with only moderate success.

"Fine Fluff, you want to know how she'd react _if_ she was interested in me; She'd probably thump the living hell out of them and then get them arrested just for good measure. I'm pretty sure that's how she'd react, but…" he said, snickering at her, "You don't have to worry about that because she, unfortunately, isn't interested in me; she's happy to be my friend and if that's all I can get, then that's what I'll take."

"Stop being such an ass and be serious for once!" Judy snapped, angry at the whole situation now. She knew that he was just using his usual snark to cover up his pain. "You can't give up. You've never given up on anything we've ever faced so stop giving up on her."

"Who said I'm giving up?" Nick snapped back at her and she could feel by the tension in his body that she'd hit a nerve. He shifted slightly and then snarked back to her, "And as for being such an ass, I've always thought that _that_ was among my best features;" he snickered again, "Why even you seemed to have trouble keeping your paws off of it and my tail!"

"Nick!" She said angrily and managed a slightly better kick than before, getting a grunt from him. "Stop messing around. This isn't something to joke about."

"And who said I was joking?" Nick said smugly and this time it was Judy who was growling.

"You are _such_ a Dumb Fox!" she nearly snarled.

"And you are _such_ a Dumb Bunny!" Nick said seeming to quite enjoy himself now.

"Dumb, Dumb, _DUMB_ fox!" Judy said irritatedly, only for Nick to give a belly laugh, and Judy had to fight hard to hold onto her irritation as Nick's mirth tried to infect her.

"You know you love me, _dumb_ _fox_ and all." Nick said in a teasing wheedling tone as his laughter lightened. Judy snapped her ears down against the back of her head, partly out of irritation at his quip but far more because they'd suddenly heated up like they'd been lit on fire. She was still practically cuddled against him, his musk surrounding her and it was making it hard for her to keep her emotions from wildly swinging out of balance.

"I'm _not_ answering that, Nick!" She said obstinately only for Nick to snicker and start nuzzling between her ears.

"Come on _Carrooots_ you know it's true."

"I'm not giving the _dumb_ _fox_ and answer to that!" Judy said trying to poke his chest. "You're too _dumb_ to even understand it!"

"You know you're going to answer, Judy." Nick said, voice tauntingly smug.

"Am not!" she snapped.

"You can't hold back from saying it forever." He snickered

"Just watch me!" She snapped defiantly.

Nick seemed to take that as a challenge,

"Really Judy?" he snickered delightedly and she just turned her head away from him, intent on ignoring the annoyingly warm fox above her. He nuzzled her head again ruffling her fur in a way he probably knew drove her nuts.

" _JJuuuuddddyyyy_ ," he snickered again, and when she gave no response, he lowered his mental age to that of a 5 year old in an attempt to annoy an answer out of her,

"Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy…" he started saying incessantly right into her ear until she finally snapped.

"NICK! I'm not answering!"

She could feel the smirk forming on his muzzle and then he whispered into her ear in that same taunting tone.

"Judy, you know I love you right?"

"Arggghhhhh!" Judy exploded, ears now blazingly, and started trying to thump him however she could as he laughed like he'd pulled the world's, best joke.

"You Stupid, Dumb, Idiotic, Incorrigible, Incessant, Irritation, Annoying, _FOX_ ," She ranted trying to thump every part of him she could reach while still trapped cuddled against him.

"Yep," Nick said still snickering, "And despite all that, you still know you love me."

"Fine, you're right you _dumb_ fox," Judy snapped, "I love you and _now_ I'm going to give you a proper thrashing, so get up off of me so I can start!"

"No can do, Carrots." Nick said in a ridiculously happy voice at having won their game.

"Argghhhh!" she groaned again in frustration before asking, "And _why_ not?"

She could even hear his tail wagging now which made her feel warm and happy inside… which also irritated her for being so easily swayed by him.

"First, Carrots, I said I'd only get off you once I had my happy smiling partner back. Granted annoyed is a step up from sad but I'm a mammal of my word."

"You're a hustler, that's what you are Nick." She replied in a clipped tone.

"Doesn't mean I'm don't keep my word," he snickered and she groaned again before scrunching up her face into a smile that Chief Bogo would have been proud of.

"Okay, Nick." She said, her foot starting to thump against his thigh where it rested, "I'm smiling and happy now," she used her best fake happy voice, which Chief Bogo would also probably have approved of, "So will you please let me up now?"

"Nope." Nick said cheerfully, without even a moments wait.

She thumped his thigh but it didn't seem to faze him at all.

"Sorry Carrots, I _would_ let you up, but I can't."

"And why not?" she asked sighing in a frustrated, defeated manner as she thumping her forehead into his chest repeatedly since there was nothing better to whack it against.

"Because I'm stuck." Nick replied happily, his tail swishing faster.

Judy stopped at that with her head pressed into his ruff, and took a second to contemplate that before coming up with an appropriate answer.

"What?!"

"Well…" Nick said, and she was sure he was grinning, "When you started fondling and petting my tail-"

Judy's groaned interrupting him, and she pressed her face into his ruff as it caught fire, "Gods, can we forget I ever did that? I can't believe I was that rude."

Nick thumped her head lightly with his muzzle, sternly saying, "It's only rude if I say it's rude, Judy. Now back to what I _was_ saying, I can't let you up because when you were fiddling with my tail I… sort of dug my claws into the seat… and can't get them out."

Judy blinked at that.

"You're serious?" she asked.

Nick huffed, "Judy, you're horrible at telling when I'm serious."

"I didn't even know that was possible…" Judy mussed, trying to look over at his paws.

"Well, Fluff…" Nick lifting off of her just a bit and yanking an arm, but his paw stayed firmly attached to the benchseat, "Evidence would seem to say that it _is_ possible."

"You actually got your claws stuck…" Judy said distantly watching him try to free his paw, a giggle escaping her as she watched.

"Not, funny Fluff." Nick said, still working to try and free his paw.

"Actually Nick… *giggle* that _is_ funny." Her giggles broke into laughter, "You got yourself stuck!" she cackled, "Stuck on a _loveboat_. Oh gods wait until we get to the end of the ride and Nadine and Ralph see this!" she started to wiggle out from under him, "I so need pictures of this!"

"Oh no you don't Fluff!" Nick said, ceasing his attempt to free his paws and flopping back down on her just as she started wiggling out from under him, "If I'm stuck, then I'll make sure you're stuck with me!"

"Not a chance, Slick!" Jud said still giggling, but now also trying to find a way to squirm out from under the fox.

"I'm _not_ letting you go Judith Laverne Hopps!" Nick said sternly, "If I'm going down, I'm bringing you with me!"

She'd managed to get her head out from under him and turned it to glare evilly at him, "We'll just see about that!"

Nick looked just about ready to toss back another quip as the boat exited the tunnel.

* * *

A/N

…

Operations Clock: +6.25 hours

…

...

Supply Division:

Damnit the Coffee supply got pirated?! Why those backstabing little *******!

Well at least we found this Epicly cool picture of WolfEyer. Got to thank **DrummerMax64** and **Ziegelzeig** for this awesome pic!

.

 **ziegelzeig DOT deviantart DOT com /art/WolfEyer-675285697**

.

...

...Now this is the Law of the Jungle

as old and as true as the moon in the sky;

And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,

but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

.

As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk

the Law runneth forward and back

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,

and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

.

Because of her age and her cunning,

because of her gripe and her paw,

In all that the Law leaveth open,

the word of your Head Wolf is Law.

.

Ralph you might follow after that Tiger,

but, Cub, when thy whiskers are grown,

Remember _this_ Wolf is the Hunter

And I'll drag that you and that Tiger back home.

.

-Cassandra Wolford's rendition of Law of the Jungle

...


	12. Chapter 12 - On the Way to the Concert

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +6.25 hours

...

Disclaimer:

Muhahahahahahaha!

"Um, sir why is the grinch laughing?"

"Because he's an evil little bugger, that's way. Don't listen to him petty officer, we caught him and have him tied up and hanging over the kerfluffle pit, ehem, I mean fist deck. All he can do is be annoying us now. I told you that the plan would work."

"Yes, sir... but the boat is listing badly to port now and half the crew is in sick bay with 'Mere flesh wounds' and the others are mostly in a comatose state of Fuffly Kerfluffle induced 'Daaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

*Officer of the watch snaps fingers in front of petty officer*

*Cackles of laughter from tied up grinch*

"awwwwwww- oh, ah, sorry sir. Even wearing protective gear and a welding mask, they still got to me a bit."

"Back to the topic at hand petty officer, you searched him right?"

"Oh yes sir. Got the Fluffthrower and the other experimental weapons off of him."

"Other experimental weapons? What other experimental weapons?!"

"Ohhh... just some radioactive hazard level fluff for a 'dirty' fluff bomb, a fluff-saber, and a couple pounds of fluff-4 explosives."

*Officer of the watch facepalms*

"Did you find the deactivation code for the Fluff nuke?"

"Ummm... well, sir... the only thing he had on him that might be that was this..."

*Hangs sheet of paper over*

"Chapter reference bingo cheat sheet? What the hell is this? We need the damn deactivation codes and quick! We're running out of time!"

*Cackles of laughter*

'It took you all too long to get me! This last chapter was tough but its finally here! Muhahahaha! Suck it losers!

"Shut up you!"

Muhahahahah-mmmmm

*Officer of watch finishes ducktaping grinch's mouth shut and hoists him back over the deck overrun by the kerfluffle*

"Ummm... *gulp* sir, what did he mean by that?"

"He's just trying to get to you, don't listen to him"

Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep... ...

"Um sir, *gulp* the nuke wasn't making that beeping sound before..."

"Probably nothing, now just find those deactivation codes."

Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep.. Beep. Beeeeeeep...

*Ducktape muffled Snicker*

* * *

Chapter 12 – On the way to the Concert

 **( Operations Clock: 2 days prior )**

 _Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Finnick cursed as some idiot knocked on the rear door of his van. He'd finished with his pawpsicle hustle for the day and had just found a good spot to park so he could relax in his mobile apartment hot rod (or so he thought of it). Though Nick's damned goody twopaws bunny cop had pointed out when he was filling out his taxes that it was still _technically_ just a van and not a mobile trailer home, even if he used it that way, and more importantly that allowed him to avoid the trailer home tax.

Finnick shook his head, muttering to himself.

"And how the fuck did I let that bunny cop hustle me into actually doing taxes again?"

It was Wilde's fault. That's how, Finnick told himself. He was happy enough that his friend had managed to get off the streets and actually do something with his life, happy that he'd found a mate even if the two ditzes were two damned dense to see that they'd fallen so hard for each other that they were as good as married already. Deep down where he'd _never_ let anyone know, he was happy about how things had turned out, but why by Karma had that godsdamned overeager bunny decided to try and reform him as well?! He was too old and set in his ways to try and change his life now.

 _Bang! Bang! Bang!_

With another curse, Finnick put his just opened beer down on top of the ice chest and shut off his portable tv before going to grab his trusty baseball bat by the back door of the van.

"Godsdamned meddling 'have to make everyone in the city better' bunny," Finnick growled, "Godsdamned taxes, Godsdamned paperwork. Hustling didn't have any godsdamned fucking _paperwork_!"

Not that he wasn't still a hustler, because he _was_ damnit. It said so right on the company license that damned bunny had made him go get, 'Pawpsicle Hustle LLC'.

 _Stupid dumb bunny, stupider dumb lovesick fox_ , Finnick though malevolently, _If those two would just get on with it and rut each other, then maybe she wouldn't have so much spare time and energy to corner me after our poker night and try to make me go legit._

Not that having their hustle turned into a legalized hustle ( _It's still a godsdamned Hustle_ , Fin adamantly told himself) didn't have its perks. Buying the ingredients for the Pawpsicle directly from the Hopps family for one thing had helped a lot. He'd gleefully burned that _karma-be-damned_ cursed elephant suit Nick had made; He couldn't describe how great it felt to know he'd never have to wear it again to get the supplies for the hustle, plus now he could make more than one flavor too, and blueberry was so much better than cherry.

In fact, he'd been making more money even without hustling the ingredients and having to pay the ridiculous government's fee known as 'taxes', than they had before. Though he put that down to the fact that while no respectably cool mammal would want to buy ice cream or popsicles from those dinky stuck up ice cream parlors or sissy ice cream trucks with their absurd paint jobs and hideous music, they had no problem buying his awesome Pawpsicle from his tricked out hot rod with it's epic paint job and his excellent taste in music. He'd even had enough money recently to get the paint job touched up and install air shocks… though he needed to secure the stuff in his mobile apartment better in the future as it had sent everything bouncing around.

"Still fucking worth it." Finnick grumbled to himself picking up the bat just as there was another series of raps on the back door.

"Who is it?!" he bellowed before slamming open the door, his bat resting against his shoulder.

 _I swear if they scratched the paint I'll…_ his thoughts trailed off to a ' _Oh Fuck'_ , as he looked into a large business suited mammal, and then looked up… and up some more until the business suit turned to white polarbear fur.

A polar bear he was unfortunately familiar with from past hustles.

He swallowed but managed to keep his normal pissed off voice despite the alarm bells that blaring in his mind.

"Hold on one fucking moment Koslov." He managed to get out before slamming the door back shut and allowing himself a short moment to panic as he tried to figure out what the fuck Mr. Bigs primary enforcer and in some ways literal right paw was doing here.

 _I haven't don't have anything to do with them nowadays!,_ Was the first thought to roll through his mind followed by,

 _This couldn't be over 'The Rug' incident, I thought Nick cleared that up with Mr. Big?_ Then he stopped as a different train of thought accrued to him.

 _Wait… are they trying to shake ME down for protection money?! Because FUCK that! See this is what comes from having a legit business… I mean legit HUSTLE. GODS FUCCKING-_

Frowning and swearing he reached over and grabbed some batting weights and slid them onto his trusty 'argument helper'. They might not do much against a freaking polar bear but he'd be damned if he didn't give him at least a few good lumps if they thought they could shake _him_ down.

Batting weights secured and baseball bat back on his shoulder Finnick threw open the door again.

"Okay Koslav what are you here for? And don't try offering _me_ any 'insurance' plan because this here," he bounced his bat on his shoulder, "is _MY_ fucking insurance and protection plan."

Koslvo's expression didn't change at all at his hostile tone, in fact if the bear hadn't grunted slightly he wouldn't have been sure if the biggest of the Big's big bears had even heard him. Finnick was about to continue but was interrupted by an excited squeaky voice from somewhere above him that, for a moment, sent a shiver of fear down his spine until he quashed the reaction.

"Oh no! Koslov and I aren't here for that silly! Koslov can you lower me down, how can we have a conversation if I can't even see who I'm talking to?"

Another grunt and the massive polarbear's paw moved down as low as it would go, which to Finnick's annoyance and ear-itation was still well above even the highest part of him.

"No, no, no. Now this just won't do!" came the shrill voice again and there was a call back to the limousine parked in the street. Four more polarbear bodyguards piled out and came over to the van before hoisting the whole vehicle right off the ground until he was even with the small shrew in Koslov's paw.

"Fru Fru Big," Finnick said evenly with the slightest nod, deciding that a little politeness right at the moment might be a good idea (a five foot drop would not do his van's suspension system any good, and it was brand freaking new), "It's pretty fu-," he bit back the curse, "pretty rare to see you around here."

"Well I do love to get out and see the city Finny!" Finnick cringed at the 'nick'name (and swore he'd kick a certain fox later for it) but decided to let it slide given his current circumstance, "But I was actually _sooooo_ hoping that I might run into you today Finny! Can you imagine just how lucky it was then that we just happened to see your van here? It's almost like, Why what's that phrase my BFF is always using, oh yes! **_Serendipity_**!"

"Damned goody twopaws bunny cop has gotten to her too…" Finnick mumbled and there was a sweet, "What was that Finny dear?"

Finnick coughed and quickly said, "Damned good phrases that bunny cop has."

"Right, I know! Judy is the sweetest mammal I've ever meet, why even her curses are cute!" the little shrew squeaked delightedly.

"It sounds more like she's hangry for a salad," Finnick grumbled, though far quieter this time before clearing his throat and speaking up.

"Fru Fru, as fuc-, ehem, _nice_ as it is to just…" Finnick frowned choosing his words, " _coincidentally_ run into you today, you said there was a reason you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh Yes!" The shrew squealed in delight and Finnick's grip on his bat tightened.

 _Oh shit, I'm not going to fucking like this, not one fucking bit…_

"Mrs. Big," He cut in a before she could continue, deciding to cut right to the point, "Not that I think your implying anything, but I just want to make it clear that I don't work for either fucking side, I don't fucking snitch for the fuzz or 'help' out 'the family' and I fucking like it that way!"

Koslov frowned at him disapprovingly but Fru Fru just laughed.

"Oh nothing like that! Not at all!" she said and waved a paw at the large polar bear who lessened his glower before she walked forward right to the edge of her portable furry platform and spoke in a conspiratorial squeak.

"Have you noticed how my bestie Judy and her partner Nicky seem to be having some trouble getting their relationship moving?"

Finnick grunted.

"I think _anyone_ can see that." He said in an exasperated voice, "I've never seen two mammals that just need to fucking rut each other so badly before! Nick was godsdamned useless at our last poker night because all he could do was stare after her every time her back was turned, wasn't even any fun cleaning him out. Like taking candy from a kit, except the kit would have actually noticed."

"Well... Me and some other friends of theirs decided that it's about time we gave them… a little push." Fru Fru squeaked with a huge smile.

"Good fucking luck with that." Finnick groused and glared back up at the disapproving look Koslov was giving him. He pointed his bat up at the polar bear, "As I recall, some _previous_ attempts haven't turned out so well _Friar Tuck_."

Koslov actually looked away seeming almost embarrassed and _muttered_ something, that with his large ears, Finnick was pretty sure was, 'Would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for that meddling gang.'

"Oh, no this time it's a bit different," Fru Fru said breaking in with a gleam in her eyes that reminded Finnick _far_ too much of her father, "This time I'm getting _personally_ involved and we have help from others as well. I'm _quite_ sure it's going to work!"

Finnick gave the shrew a wary look.

"And what are you up to, Fru Fru Big? Because I'm don't know how you could possibly get them together unless you're planning on fucking kidnapping them and chaining them together alone in a locked room… and maybe dose them with nighthowler too, just so that they finally cave to their instincts and rut each other silly."

The shrew shrugged in a completely indifferent manner, "If I have to. Though, I don't think Judy or Nicky are into that kind of bondage stuff, at least our background checks on them haven't suggested it."

Then she smiled at him and Finnick felt another shiver of fear run up his spine, "And there are better, more… _natural_ ways than using nighthowlers, though I considered it," she said smiling like she was talking about what dress she'd considering to wear in the morning, "Plus, kidnapping is _such_ an unpleasant way to go about it too. If our other first plans don't work and we _do_ have to do something… drastic, like you suggested, then it's much easier to just trick them into going where we want rather than going to all the hassle of _forcefully_ bringing them there. We'd just need to provide them with a little incentive, a 'little' _bait_ ; You could help us out with such a 'little' hustle right, _Finny_?" The shrew asked in a oh-so-sweet voice, smiling at him in as another shiver ran from his ears to his toes. He gulped as the shrew continued like some sort of demonic little cupid angel floating on a white pawed cloud, "You'll help us, right? We're only doing what's best for our two precious friends after all."

* * *

 **(Operations Clock: +6.25 Hours)**

"Hey! Stop hogging all the popcorn and pass one of the bowls over before the commercials finish!" Jessica shouted across the main living room of the burrow where most of the family had gathered to watch the show.

"No fighting, There's plenty for everyone." Bonnie said, pointing to one of the bunnies near Jessica, "Samantha, share with your sister,"

Samantha smirked and then tossed a pawful of popcorn at Jessica snickering at her, before noticing the stern glare from their mother and passing the popcorn bowl she had over. There were some laughs from the surrounding siblings but those got shushed by others who pointed at the screen and Jessica turned back to the super wide deluxe flatscreen on the wall where one commercial had just finished and another started, this time with a well muscled dark haired mustang standing in front of a steamy shower only wearing a towel wrapped around his waist.

"OMG, I love Erinnye Crews!" someone in the crowd squealed while another shouted, "Erinnye's number 1!" only for everyone else to drown them out with irritated shushes.

"Hello ladies." The commercial actor said in a resonating deep voice with a squeal inducing charming smile as he continued in quick confident manner, "Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me." he said before lifting up a red product bottle, "But if he stopped using lady scented body wash and switched to Musk Mask's Old Spice scented deodorizer, he could smell like he's me."

The scene suddenly switched, the steamy shower background lifting away to show a boat and ocean as the towel was ripped off to display the white boating slacks just as a blue and white striped, sleeve knotted shirt fell from off screen to land across his shoulders making his muscled glossy black haired chest stand out more. There were a few more squeals of delight, primarily from the teenaged does. (though some came from older does and even some from a few bucks too)

"Look down. Back up. Where are you?" the commercial actors continued without breaking his smooth charming monolog, as his hoof holding the bottle dipped out of view of the camera "You're on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What's in your paw? Back at me." his hoof came back up as the camera view focused back in on his chest and head, showing only the ocean background, while his hoof held a sea shell that popped open to show Gazelle VIP tickets instead of a pearl,

"I have it. It's an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again." The oyster fell away to show a pile of gems over flowing from his hoof, as his voice became even deeper and sexier, "The tickets are now diamonds!" the pile of gems continued to overflow as the bottle from earlier started rising out of them, and he gave a swoon worthy smile as the camera angle zoomed out to show him walking on a beach, "Anything is possible when your man smells like Musk Mask's Old Spice scent and not an old lady." He finished grinning sexily and posing to make his contoured chest stand out before saying in a non-sequitur statement, "I'm a horse."

There was a wolfwhistling trademark tune as a gorgeous artic she-wolf sauntered up to him while the camera continued to zoom out showing more of the beach. The she-wolf took a sniff of him and smiled, pressing herself up against his chest as he winked right before the commercial cut off.

There room filled with noise as some fanned themselves and others pulled their phones out and began tapping away.

Jessica could hear her dad groaning about how the whole burrow was going to smell like scented deodorizer for a week again while old Grandpa Pop-pop grumbled about how in his day you'd never see such a uncouth thing as blatant interspeciesism on tv by golly gosh darnit.

Jessica snickered as she shoved some popcorn in her mouth; old Pop-pop with his bad hearing and iffy eyesight hadn't apparently figured out that the news report everyone was watching was featuring their sister. The entire room quieted as the commercial run ended and switched back to the news channel showing Peter Moosebridge and Fabienne Growley sitting at their desks in the ZNN News room.

"Welcome back to our 6 o'clock special report on the two Valentine's day love stories everyone wants to know about." Moosebridge said smoothly, "Before we continue with our behavioral traits expert Dr. Viktor Vandyke we have an emergency weather announcement. Fabienne, if you would."

The screen focused on the snow leopard as she began speaking, a background image of a weather map of Zootopia appearing.

"Thank you Peter. An emergency shut down of water main 12 has caused excess water to be diverted to northern Zootopia. Residence of the Rainforest District can expect heavier than normal rain throughout the rest of the night and into tomorrow as beaver work crews inspect the pipes for reported damage and make any necessary repairs. In addition, residents of Sahara Square should bundle up as temperatures are expected to reach record lows tonight due to an unexpected ice chuck that broke off of one of the polar straight's glaciers and floated south before the new iceberg beaching itself on Sandy Grove."

The image cut to a shot from the Palm Tree Resort where the titanically huge ice berg could easily be seen along the Sahara Square's coast. Bonnie headed over toward Jessica handing out more bowls of popcorn as the report continued but stopped by her to whisper, "I still can't believe they went with your plan. Don't you think this is a little… excessive?"

"Moooomm," Jessica said exasperatedly though she kept her voice low enough so that it didn't travel too far, "This is _Judy_ we're talking about. Jude the dude, Judy on duty, Judy 'I can't realize the mammal I've fallen in love with, loves me back even if he's almost drooling all over me'. There is _no_ such thing as 'excessive' in this situation and everyone else _obviously_ agrees with me," she said waving her paw at the screen, "Besides if this doesn't work, nothing will and dad will have a heart attack anxiously waiting by the phone day after day to hear that they're finally 'officially' together so he can 'officially' start the wedding preparations."

Her mother huffed but glanced at her dad with a warm smile muttering, "He's _already_ started the wedding preparations."

Jessica rolled her eyes, "That's why I said ' _officially'_ , now let's watch the report. I want to hear the rest of what Dr. Vandyke has to say, he's been pretty spot on so far and I didn't know half the stuff about courting signs he's mention either, predators are so different." She finished delightedly and turned back to the tv, listening to the feline anchor as her mother smiled and shook her head before going back over to sit with her dad.

"Climate wall operators have increased heating to Sahara Square to maximum and expect that 'Hell's Snowball' as they've nicknamed the iceberg will be gone by tomorrow, but areas nearer the cost will have cooler than normal temperatures as they melt it away. Unfortunately, this also means that residents of Tundratown can expect colder weather tonight as the Climate Wall will need to increase cooling proportionally with the heating. This in combination with the excess rain and humidity that is expected to cross over the mountain divide from the mains water diversion to the Rainforest District is expected to bring about Tundratown's biggest blizzard of the decade. Snow is expected to start falling within a few hours and residents are warned to stay indoors and ride out tonight's storm. So break out the hot chocolate supplies, snuggle up with your Valentine's special someone and enjoy the night and a chance to sleeping-in in the morning as Tundratown schools have issued a 2 hour delay for tomorrow and most businesses are expected to follow." The anchor finished smiling as the map disappeared. Only for a windowed view of a black jaguar wearing a tweed jacket sitting in what looked like a cross between an academic professor and medical doctors office to appear.

"Now back to our feature story." Growley continued, "Dr. Vandyke, we thank you again for helping to explain to our viewers about what we are seeing with these alleged couples, particularly as not all courting customs are the same between species."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's safe to call them couples, my dear. Why, the level of intimacy and classic courting behaviors certainly suggest it. _And_ the fact that all this news about these couples has only become public knowledge now, also makes sense given the season."

"Do you mean because it's winter and that at least one member of each couple is a predator?" Peter Moosebridge asked.

"Certainly, my boy!" Dr. Vandyke said waving enthusiastically, like a student had just asked the right question, "The real interesting part of this from a academic perspective is how the differences in cross species nature of the relationships will effect this given that they will not all have the same culture and instincts driving them. The canids will be far more effected by the season while the tigress will only be minimally effected by it. Officer Hopps on the other hand has the most interesting case since bunnies don't have a particular mating season at all. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet and look at Officers Wolford and Fangmeyer's relationship first." The professor said, smiling and leaning back in his chair as he played with an old wooded pipe.

"Based off of the information ZNN was able to provide, the apparent suddenness and depth of their relationship is not all that surprising. You see, wolves have a rather rigid courting process built off of the nature of their packs, while tigers, like most felines tend to have a looser, more fluid approach." He paused before emphasizing, "However, there is _one_ fairly common and important part in feline relationships that marks the difference between a causal interest and when a relationship turns into a very serious mating courtship. It is generally what is known as a 'dominance display' or 'dominance fight'."

"A fight?" Moosebridge interjected effortlessly without so much as a hitch as his co-anchor blushed ever so slightly. The almost quiet room in the burrow filled with a low level chatter as everyone started murmuring about that. "Could you explain that a little for those non-predator viewers?" Moosebridge asked as smoothly as he would for a weather report, "Unlike you Doctor, must viewers won't have such an expansive understanding of different cultural norms."

"Absolutely," Dr. Vandyke said waving his pipe, "The term fight though might be a little misleading, just like acts of biting among predators can be misunderstood by other species. Biting and nipping among predators can be anything from strictly playful, to intimate, to matronly displays, depending on the situation and species but aren't actually harmful. I'm sure most mammals have heard of how sometimes predator mothers will pick up their cubs by the scruff of the neck, sometimes even by with their teeth?"

Moosebridge nodded at this and Dr. Vandyke continued.

"It's not something you'll likely ever see, unless you actually live in a predator home, but that kind of behavior is not un-common for predators nor is it done in any harmful or mean way, as some less educated prey mammals seem to automatically assume. In fact, being bitten on the scruff of the neck can actually calm many predators as the feeling is instinctually linked to rearing behaviors." Dr. Vandyke smiled and gestured with his pipe, "But I think we are getting off topic here. The point is that when I say 'biting' or 'fighting' it is entirely different from something like biting or clawing you would see in a mauling sort of fight."

"As for the feline 'dominance fights', actual real fights are rare, though they do sometimes occur with hardline 'feline naturalist' who adamantly stick to the most traditional or as they see it, 'natural' ideas and methods of courting and mating. Usually though, even among most feline naturalists, it's more of a mating display, which is an idea fairly common to many species even non-predators, except that in this case it usually consists of lots of roaring as well as posturing that other species might be more familiar with; it can even include some small amount of tussling were one or the other would lightly bite and hold their partner. It allows them to show off for each other; to display their strength, agility, and dominance, while the 'bite' is essentially a claiming statement. This is generally the point at which a growing relationship between feline's will either end, if one or the other refuses the claiming gesture or continued with a mutual intent to become mates if it is accepted. It's something of an instinctually based tradition among felines that usually happens shortly before the pair scent marks each other, which as everyone knows since it is one of the few nearly universal courtship rituals, publicly and legally declares them to be formally engaged."

Jessica had her paws over her mouth by this point imagining what _that_ must be like. It made the tail flicking and other subtle gestures of bunny courting sound bland by comparison. The whole thing sounded so… primal and exciting. Maybe she could convince Bobby Catmull to tell her more about it over a few beers…

Her thoughts about the small cougar were broken off as Dr. Vandyke's voice caught her wandering attention.

"While male felines tend gain a slight urge to find at least a causal relationship during winter, or what many call a 'winter arrangement', the relationship will only ever progress to that of actual mates after the dominance display happens. This is usually but not always initiated by the female, particularly at the start of a heat cycle, and only after the two felines have come to know each other over some time of more casual courting. Sometimes this takes years, sometimes only months and in other cases a 'winter arrangement' or casual interest will simply break up having never even reached that point in the relationship."

Fabienne Growley cleared her throat daintily and with only the slightest blush showing through her light fur, asked, "So you believe that they have already passed that stage of their relationship? That they have essentially taken each other as life-mates? My understanding is that wolves tend to be a little slower and less... spontaneous in their courtship process. The relationship between Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford, from what we've been able to find, seems to have been fairly low key before now."

"Right on all accounts!" Dr. Vandyke said nodding as if praising a star student, "Wolves unlike felines, have a more rigid and formalized courtship structure which in many cases is overseen by the pack or packs involved. This structured courtship helps wolves by giving the process a designed rule set to follow since they are more sensitive than most other mammals to dominance dynamics due to the nature of the packs they grow up in. It also helps to prevent issues and fights from erupting between the members of various packs since wolves can become excessively territorial over who they are courting, _particularly_ during winter."

Doctor Vandyke stopped for a second to grin at the camera, "As you said my dear, their relationship seems not to match what we would have expected given that a wolf is involved, but you have to remember that this isn't a wolf courting another wolf _and_ that it _is_ winter mating season. Part of why wolves have such a stringent courtship structure is because wolves like many canids feel the instinctual effects of the winter mating season far more than other predators. Given that and that most wolves mate for life, if there wasn't some sort of courting structure, the beginning of winter would be utter chaos for them, like back in stone age times, as the younger wolves started pairing off and fighting over mates. The whole courtship structure keeps it civilized. The problem is that felines don't follow those rules and some of what is involved in the wolf courtship process involve aspects that reflect a wolf's dominance within their pack structure as a way to display that they would make a strong, smart and desirable mate. What I believe happened is that Officer Wolford in trying to court Officer Fangmeyer as he would any other wolf during the winter courting season, even though he was doing it below the radar of his pack, so to speak, probably made some gesture or action that to another wolf would have only been a mild show of dominance but to Officer Fangmeyer would have been akin to initiating a feline dominance fight. At least that's what the evidence seems to suggest."

Dr. Vandyke stopped for a second and turned to someone to the side of the camera. "Please have them play the video from the reported trying to interview Officer Fangmeyer's neighbors…. Yes, yes that one. It's the perfect example to illustrate this lectures point… You already censored it so it should be fine. Come on, hop to it, this is going out live, isn't it?-"

The view cut back to the two anchors and Growly managed to pick up from the sudden shift with only the slightest pause.

"ZNN managed to get an exclusive interview with neighbors of Officer Fangmeyer earlier today so we'll let ZNN's Tod Irontail take it from here."

The screen cut to a view of a small apartment with a well dressed beaver sitting in a couch chair holding a microphone while an old long bearded goat with one broken horn sat across from him on another couch.

"Hello, this is Tod Irontail here interviewing Herald Hornsly a neighbor of Officer Fangmeyer," he turned from the camera to face the goat, smiling as he held out the mic. "Mr. Hornsly, you know both Officer Fangmeyer and Officer Wolford?"

"Of course I know Officer Fangmeyer and Officer Wolford, I live below one of them and they work together," the old goat with a broken horn said peevishly, "Damned cat doesn't even have the dignity to stay with her own species, has to go chasing after that blasted wolf she's always hanging around with even outside of work," he nearly spat.

The beaver frowned slightly but kept a professional face as he asked, "You don't approve of their relationship?"

"Relationship? How can some _cat_ have a relationship with a-" he was cut off as a voice from across the room and through what looked like it lead to a kitchen door, called over sternly.

"Herald, don't you go being mean to that nice young couple again. There is nothing wrong with being in love even if they aren't the same species."

The goat scowled over at the door before saying, "Love? That's not love, that's lust! Djali save us all women! That sassy little nightmare of a neighbor even calls them _WolfEyer_ because that _cat_ can't stop _eying_ up that _wolf_!"

There was a muted equine snicker and the camera bobbed for a second while Irontail brought the microphone back to himself and tried to speak.

A loud harrumph interrupted him though and a nanny goat appeared at the door of the kitchen wearing an apron and scowling at Hornsly, "Don't you go swearing by Djali or her ghost will come back and make you regret it!" Mr. Hornsly glared in response, and of all things blew a raspberry at his wife, startling the reporter who looked like he was trying to figure out how to regain control of his interview. The old nanny goat though was quicker than him, huffing and waving a dishrag at Mr. Hornsly, "Megan is a very nice young girl, just a bit… energetic. And you know that it's impolite to go around calling felines, _cats_!"

"Not when all they do is yawl all night and lust after mammals not _even their own_ **_species_**!" the old goat spat.

"Oh?" his wife said, seeming to finally get seriously irritated, "And what's wrong with being a bit lusty with the mammal you love? _You_ certainly don't seem to have that problem when we get a bit 'lusty'! Maybe I should cancel your prescription. Tell the doctor that you've decided 'lust' is a bad thing in a relationship and that you won't be needing those little blue helpers anymore."

"Oh come now!" the old stoat bleated in alarm, "That's different, we're married and we don't go around making a racket and bother other mammals so much we make the news! They were roaring and howling up a storm, banging around the apartment like it's was a free for all MMA fight before r-( _bleep_ )-ing each other so hard they made their bed sound like an entire string orchestra! A hideously out of tune orchestra attempting to squeak out the 1812 Mousekovsky Overture!"

The now wide eyed beaver reporter opened his mouth to say something before closing it and trying again only to get interrupted by a knock on the wall as the mammal in the neighboring apartment shouted, "If you're going to complain to that reporter about the noise _they_ made then you should tell him about how noisy you are with your _b-b-b-b-bleating_!" he finished in mockery of a goat's bleat, "They don't make half as much of a ruckus!"

"Go get your own damned reporter!" Shouted the now angry Mr. Hornsly, "This is _my_ interview and I'll tell it the way I want, ya squealing _pork nose_!"

"Why thank you, I've always been very proud of my nose," the voice shouted back just as a few other neighboring apartments joined in on the shouting match while the reported tried and failed, to calm the goat down and the interview descended into utter chaos.

The screen cut back just as a rising chorus of 'This is _our_ house!' from the neighboring apartments started, showing a view of the anchors on one side and Dr. Vandyke on the other as the burrow's living room erupted in laughter. Jessica was giggling too hard to even care that one of her brothers had managed to steal her popcorn bowl.

"And thank you Ted Irontail for that… novel interview," Growley managed to say as Moosebridge coughed once into his hoof, though her cheeks were noticeably more pink than before, "Dr. Vandyke, you said this, um, illustrated your point?"

"Yes, Yes. Absolutely!" the old doctor said pointing off screen, "See, what happened there? Something triggered a fight with howling and roaring back and forth as well as a tussle, and one, given the pictures of them afterwards holding paws, that was not a serious ' _fight_ ' kind of fight. It is not surprising that Officer Wolford, due to the season might be more forward or dominate in their budding courtship and those actions could easily trigger, as it clearly appears to have done, a feline dominance fight with Officer Fangmeyer. Given how winter affects wolves, and that Officer Wolford is considered more of a dominant wolf or 'alpha wolf' as many call them, it would be very unlikely for him to simply back down once such a fight started." The doctor stopped for a second to remove his pipe from his mouth and use it to gesture at the camera, "That it happened is not surprising. What _is_ so interesting to me and the others in our field is how it was resolved. We'd love to have more details on it since I would have guessed that such a dominance display between a wolf and a feline, particularly that early in their relationship, would have been unlikely to end with them together given the nuances of the two separate cultures."

Moosebridge frowned slightly and asked, "Do… you mean you would have expected them to break up after such a fight, or 'display'?"

Dr. Vandyke shrugged, "If I was a betting mammal I'd have given it long odds. There are a number of things that could have gone wrong and would have marred the relationship, but considering that they ended up mating right afterwards which is generally what happens after a successful display, it's certain that they are a couple now, especially given wolves tendency to mate for life. They managed to skip right over most of the wolf courtship process and come out together on the other end, so while they might not have marked each other yet, they're the next best thing to legally engaged."

"Well that seems to be quite the fairy tale romance story." Fabienne Growley replied, "Quiet fitting for Valentine's day wouldn't you think?"

The doctor gave a noncommittal gesture at that, "Yes, it might be romantic, a 'true love wins out' story but it's not over yet. While they have managed to get through any issues between themselves being different species, Officer Wolford is still part of Savanna Central's most prominent wolf pack and wolf packs have internal politic structures inside and between them that make the Zootopia politics look simple by comparison. Officer Wolford, an adult member of the pack, has gone outside of the pack's courting process without even informing them and essentially claimed a mate, a mate that _isn't_ a wolf, isn't part of _any_ pack, _and_ if ZNN's information is correct, done so despite an apparently preplanned trial date between himself and the daughter of the Silverclaw's alphas. All that is going to cause more waves inside Zootopia's pack dynamics than dropping a bomb in a pond. Depending on how his and other packs respond, this 'fairy tail' love story could end up being anything from a Cinderalla story to a modern age Wolfspeare Romeo and Juliet tragedy.

"Well however it turns out, you can be sure that we here at ZNN will surely be following it," Moosebridge said, "Now Doctor, what about Officer's Wilde and Hopps?" the screen shifted to show a photo spread of the two, "Canids and Felines might traditionally not get along well together, but they aren't natural enemies like foxes and rabbits. Some have even expressed a concern that they think a predator, being more naturally aggressive might be unintentionally pressuring her into such a relationship."

Jessica laughed at that along with most of her siblings though there were a few mutters of discontent (particularly from Pop-pop, who was saying something about foxes being red because they were made by the devil). The idea of anyone pushing _Judy_ into a relationship was ridiculous though. Judy would be more likely to punch out anyone who tried _that_ , she'd done it before after all to at least one pushy buck in highschool who thought she'd be some easy tail.

Doctor Vandyke's response seemed to concur with Jessica's reaction to the comment, since he chuckled before speaking.

"I'd say that's not something you would have to worry about, at least not between a male fox and a female bunny." He chuckled again and waved away a comment before Moosebridge could even make it, "In fox culture it's always the female that moves the relationship along. Everything from asking them out the first time to marriage proposals, the vixen is the one that pushes the tod." He chuckled again, "If there was a vixen with her eye on a buck, well then you might want to worry because that buck might just find himself married and not know how it happened."

"But Doctor Vandyke," Fabienne Growley asked, gesturing with one paw, "I thought that male canids, including foxes get very territorial and aggressive about their courtship interest during winter. Are you saying that Officer Wilde is not going to act like that? That he wouldn't pressure Officer Hopps at all?"

"Oh he's certainly going to act that way," the jaguar leaned back in his chair, grinning, "In fact you can see that in every picture and video you've shown of the two of them during winter so far." He held up a paw forestalling any comment and continued, "Take a look at the pictures, the posturing, glaring, the way he positions himself between her and others. But all that territorial behavior is focused at those around Officer Hopps, particularly other _males_ around her. While Officer Wilde is essentially instinctually trying to drive off any potential competition for Officer Hopps attention and affection, he hasn't made any move on her or pressured her in any other way except to make sure he and no other suitor is around her as much as possible. That's Fox Courtship 101. He'll stick by her as close as he can get until she either rejects him or decides to court him."

"Wait," Growley interrupted, "The rumors of the WildeHopps relationship have been building for months. Are you saying this could be a one sided love affair, with Officer Wilde pining after Officer Hopps? There's no clear evidence that what many are taking to be a date today is in fact actually one."

"Yes and no my dear," Doctor Vandyke said bobbing his pipe in a sort-of gesture, "that is only partially correct. Officer Hopps might not have initiated a formal courtship but it's certainly not a one-sided love affair. Take a careful look at the videos you've shown of them together all the way back to the missing mammal's case. Other mammals might not know the intricacies of these particular species courting methods but mammals do usually have sort of natural intuition about these kinds of things and they are right to assume that something is there, because it certainly _is_. If you watch most of the media coverage of them carefully, you can see how Hopps will often go skipping out in front of him. That's not just general enthusiasm, look carefully at the way her ears are on end and how they move and especially how her tail flicks; you can see all the classic signs of lapine interest. Then there's the way she is always hugging him or near him; Bunnies may be gregarious social animals but you don't see her being that close to anyone else. And though there are other signs the best one is how she acted in the video that went viral today. It's blatantly obvious from how she was holding him that she was not only worried for him but quite defensive and protective too. Lapines are not necessary known for their protective or aggressive natures," the doctor said smiling, "However they can be extremely protective of their family and _mates_."

He let that sink in for a second as a picture of the scene in question was displayed.

" _That_ ," Doctor Vandyke said, almost purring in satisfaction, "Shows that Officer Hopps is certainly more than just slightly 'interested' in Officer Wilde."

"Then why has she not asked him out?" Moosebridge questioned, only for the doctor to shrug again, "There could be any number of reason for that. That is more the type of question for a psychologist rather than a specialist of behavioral traits like myself, though I will say that it maybe something as simple as Officer Hopps hoping he would ask her out and any hints she's been giving him simply aren't recognized by a fox. The fact that they are going together to the Valentine's Day festival together could have been an attempt from Hopps to start something, but one that Wilde simply didn't understand. Vixen's… tend to be _very_ direct when they initiate a relationship. So this all might be like a cow waving a red flag at a bull and saying 'come get me', while the unfortunate bull is color blind and speaks a different language."

Jessica brought her paws up to cover her mouth as she started snickering uncontrollably at that.

"Like star-crossed lovers that are always passing each other without ever being able to connect?" Growley asked and the Doctor nodded with his own chuckle.

"Precisely, but I expect that sooner or later they'll collide, and that should be one interesting show. I certainly look forward to when it happens as it will make for one intriguing research paper."

"Well," Moosebridge said turning to face the camera, "it's a good thing then that after our next commercial break we have Doctor Madge Honeybadger, a licensed psychologist as well as one of Zootopia's most renown medical doctors here at ZNN to talk with us. Maybe in addition to the questions regarding the possibility of cross species reproduction we can ask her for her view of the Officer's Hopps and her actions. Thank you again, Doctor Vandyke for your time, and we'll see the rest of you right after this break."

* * *

 **( Operations Clock: +6.25 hours )**

"You should listen to Nadine, Jack. It doesn't matter where those two go, they'll find some sort of trouble and end up in the craziest predicament." Ralph said, from under the towel as the tigress continued to dry off his ears and head, "Chief Bogo has a whole theory about them being like little Murphy cursed chaos magnets; has diagrams and statistic charts and everything… it's actually a rather impressive presentation." He snickered.

Jack just rolled his eyes not that the wolf could see the gesture, "Really, how much trouble could they possibly get into while just sitting on a boat?"

There was an incredulous snort from the ride attendant who had just come by to pick up the pair of wet towels.

"Hopefully less trouble than they did," the moose said looking at the tiger and wolf before giving Jack and Skye a pointed look as well, "Or you two for that matter." He grumbled before heading back toward the attendant's booth muttering the whole way, "… hope their friends didn't dunk themselves too because we're out of towels..."

There was some more snickering from the wolf but Jack just crossed his arms.

"I'm still betting that nothing happened. The two of them are still holding back on how they feel for each other. They probably sat awkwardly in the boat the whole time not even able to look at each other."

There were some muffled, amused sounds from beside him and Jack looked at Skye questioningly.

"Well you're at least right about the awkward part," she said pointing over his shoulder just as there was a shout of, "We'll just see about that!" from the tunnel exit lane for the small and medium sized boats.

Ralph's ears under the towel snapped up like the poles of a ranger scout tent before he lifted up the front to see and broke out into a howl of laughter as Fangmeyer facepalmed.

Jack turned around to see Wilde sprawled out over the whole seat of the smaller love boat coming toward them with two long gray ears sticking out over his shoulders. The ears popped upright and swiveled around in the direction of the laughter before a red blush started traveling up the pink insides.

"NICK" Hopps's embarrassed voice cried out from under him as her head followed her ears up and peeked over his shoulder, "Let. Me. Up. Right. Now! You dumb fox!"

Nick barely shifted as Judy squirmed and only snickered, "I already told you, we're going down together. And I'm _stuck_ , remember? I'm a _dumb fox_ and all, we're a built a little different than you rabbits; things like this happen sometimes."

Skye grabbed her muzzle, muffling her giggles and started shaking as her cheeks went red while Wolford fell off the bench laughing.

"Sometimes?! _Sometimes_!? I've never seen that happen to anyone before!"

"That because you're _Not_ a fox."

"Well, _fox_ ," Judy nearly spat, "If you got yourself _stuck_ , then you can get yourself _un_ stuck!"

"That's a lot easier said than done Judy, I already tried remember?" he said sounding incredibly smug, "I'm _really_ stuck; buried in all the way and can't get out."

"Aghhh! That's _Not_ the problem! You could let me go and you know it!" Judy fumed, before finally catching a glance of her laughing audience, "OMG this is sooo embarrassing! Why do I have to be stuck here with you like this?"

"Because you know you love me?" Nick said sounding very happy.

"Oh no! no, no NO!" Judy said turning back to face him, "Don't try to pull that one over on me again Nicholas Piberius Wilde! I am NOT falling for that again! I wouldn't be trapped her if I hadn't fallen for that little hustle!" there was more struggling as Judy tried and failed to pull herself out from under Nick who started squirming in response.

"Ow, ow, ow, OW! Judy stop jerking and tugging on me like that! My ruff is not a climbing rope! It's your fault I'm stuck like this, so you can share in the embarrassment!"

"It's _Not_!" Judy snapped back, "Not at all! _Not_ my fault! You're the one in control of your body _not_ me! How is it my fault this happened?"

Nadine was staring wide eyed and slack jawed at the boat as it drifted towards them, but Ralph was rolling on the ground holding his stomach as he laughed and Skye wasn't doing much better. Jack though, was a true unshakable professional. He might have let out a few snickers but his paws were rock steady as he held his phone up, recoding the scene.

"As I recall _you_ started stroking my tail which directly lead to _this_ happening. Ergo _your_ fault," Nick replied smugly, as Judy tried to extricate herself again without much success.

"Stupid dumb fox! Why do you have to be so damned _big_?!"

By this point Wolford was gasping and shaking as he laughed while Fangmeyer stared wide eyed with her paws up over her face, though they didn't hide her blush or her almost manic giggles.

Skye leaned over to support herself on Jack and whispered to him between her own barely controlled snickers and giggles, "See! _That's_ one more reason why I'm so happy with the way you are. _We_ don't have to worry about inconveniently getting 'stuck' together!"

* * *

"Don't worry about it, Judy." Nadine said trying not to giggle again as she patted the bunny on the back, careful so she didn't knock her right off the bench they were sitting on, "It just looked like…" she stopped and had to fight not to start manically giggling again, "Well, it was just a misunderstanding."

"Nadine," Judy said plaintively looking up at her from behind one of her ears she was trying to hide behind, "Everyone thought we'd just had… that Nick and I were… that… " she spluttered to a stop her cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

"That you and Nick 'tied the knot' on a love boat?" Nadine finished grinning and Judy groaned, flopping forward and covered her face with her paws. Nadine patted the bunny lightly on the back again, "As I said don't worry about it, why I bet that by the next girls night out we'll both be laughing about this!"

"Oh gods, Nadine you _can't_ tell Francine!" Judy said sitting bolt upright in sudden alarm, "She'll tell Clawhauser and then he'll tell everyone and then I'll be the laughing stock of the precinct!"

"Judy, it's not that bad," Nadine said comfortingly, "This kind of thing happens to everyone,"

"Oh?" Judy said sarcastically, almost hysterically, "When was the last time someone thought _you_ were having s… s… _sex,_ " she almost failed to get the word out and blushed even harder, "with your best friend!"

"Happened twice this morning," Nadine said without thinking, then flushed as Judy's jaw dropped.

"b-b-b-but… what?!" she finally spluttered and Nadine scratched the back of her head nervously but decided that it might help Judy if she told her.

 _Fair is fair anyway_ , she thought trying to shrug off her own embarrassment.

"Ralph came over this morning and… we were a bit loud and my neighbors thought we were, well… rutting." Nadine finished awkwardly trying hard to control the heat suffusing her face. "See, happens to us all."

"But your dating Ralph, that's different." Judy said.

"NO," Nadine snapped and blushed hard, "Well, yes, but no, sort-of. We _weren't_ dating! Not this morning at least! In fact, we aren't _technically_ dating now, we're only _going_ to be dating!" Nadine said in a fast flustered mess and Judy gave her a skeptical look.

"But you called Ralph your boyfriend when that other tiger hit on you earlier."

"He is, _will_ be, but that's not the point Judy!" Nadine said waving her paws in negation, "We were most definitely _not_ dating this morning and my neighbors had _no_ reason to assume that we were, and they _certainly_ shouldn't have started commenting and arguing about our sex life!" Nadine realized that she might have said that last part a bit too loud as there were some interested glances from Ralph and the others as they tried to help get Nick unstuck from the boat seat. She slid a bit down on the bench as if that could hide her from them before turned back to Judy... and froze.

 _Shitttttt…_

The rabbit had her detective, 'something doesn't add up' look on her face. And when she got that look she'd dig and keep digging until her curiosity was satisfied.

 _Why me?_ Nadine whined to herself, _Destiny must hate me._

"What were you and Ralph doing that made them think you two were rutting?" Judy asked far too acutely, and Nadine's cheeks flamed up.

"Nothing!" she replied way too quickly and cringed as Judy's face all but screamed 'Gotchya!'

"Sooooo, you _were_ doing something with Ralph this morning then?" she asked delightedly.

"NOOO, We were _not_ having sex!" Nadine tried saying but could feel herself caving under Judy's knowing look, "I swear! We weren't! Not really." She winced at that last part.

 _Damnit! I should know better! Get the perp talking and flustered and they'll always say something they didn't mean to!_

"Not really?" Judy repeated, latching on to that last bit and Nadine mentally cursed herself again. She looked back to make sure that everyone was still over at the boat and then leaned down to Judy.

"Fine," she hissed, "This is just between us girls, got it?" Judy nodded enthusiastically, and Nadine sighed, "we… we made out and it might have gotten a bit heavy. Really heavy… _but_ that was it! The rest was just a damned misunderstanding so you're in the same boat as I am!"

"Oh no Nadine, that is completely different!" Judy nearly squealed like Clawhauser spotting gazelle, "I wasn't making out with Nick in our 'misunderstanding'. You must _really_ like him!"

"Well, _you_ only went and petted Nick's tail!" Nadine shot back and Judy's ears started turning bright pink again.

"Okay I… I might have gotten a bit pawsie, I didn't know before… well Skye only just told me about foxes and their tails. But Nadine it sounds like…" Judy blushed a bit more but continued, "like you really want to, well you know… with Ralph."

"No more than you want to rut Nick too!" Nadine snapped out of sheer embarrassment, and then groaned as Judy blushed beat red and started stammering as her eyes went wide.

"Sorry, Judy," she said quickly, her own face feeling like it was on fire as well, "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, I'm… I'm still coming to grips with how I feel about Ralph. I shouldn't have brought in your feelings for Nick-"

Judy went ramrod straight and squeaked in a terrified whisper, " _You Know_!?"

Nadine gave her a quizzical look, "Know what? That you're in love with Nick?"

Judy meeped and all the color started leaching out of her cheeks and ears before she grabbed them and started yanking.

"No. no. no. no. no." she looked up pleadingly at Nadine seeming about to panic, "Nadine you _can't_ tell him! You can't tell anyone! _He_ can't find out!"

Nadine placed her paws on Judy's tiny shoulders and gave her a careful shake.

"Judy, calm down. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too,"

 _Not that literally everyone doesn't already know… except for Nick._

But her words seemed to calm Judy down just enough to stop her from going into a full on panic attack as she stammered, "H-how d-d-did you know?"

Nadine sighed and tried to figure out the best way to deal with her friend,

"Besides the fact that you grabbed his tail?" she started and Judy flinched, so she continued as kindly as she could, "Judy, were friends and friends can tell these things right? You obviously picked up that…" Nadine looked over to were Ralph was yanking on Nick like he was a tug-of-war rope alongside Savage and Skye… and losing to the boat,

"That… I…"

Nadine swallowed hard and closed her eyes before whispering, "love Ralph."

There was a moment of nothing and then she could feel herself staring to shake and she squeezed her eyes shut but felt a tear escape anyway.

A small but surprisingly strong paw gripped hers.

"Nadine?" Judy asked still sounding a bit shaky but her voice was filled with concern.

Nadine squeezed her paw back thankful for the gesture and only remembered at the last second not to squeeze _too_ hard. She took a deep breath and rubbed at her face with the back of her paw.

"You really love him, don't you?" Judy asked.

"Yes, I do." Nadine said trying not to sniffle.

"Since when?" Judy asked and Nadine gave a short laughed.

"I have no idea, I only realized I was _already_ in love with him yesterday. Way, far gone, completely in love with him," she gave another short laugh still scrubbing at her face, "Do you know when you fell for Nick?"

"I…" Judy's voice was a little unsteady but she continued none the less, "I think I started falling in love with him when he stood up to Chief Bogo for me on the sky tram back in the Missing Mammals case…" She swallowed hard, "by the time he left for the academy I knew… I just… I just couldn't tell him… and… and now it's too late." She finished sounding like she was on the verge of breaking down.

"And why do you think that?" Nadine asked as she finally started getting some control back over herself.

Judy just stared at her incredulously for a moment before finally almost shouting in a frustrated and pained voice, "Because he's already in love with someone else!"

"Maybe," Nadine said suddenly feeling like she was walking on very thin ice.

 _You should just tell her_. part of her mind argued

 _Ya that's like saying you should cut the red wire in a bomb? What if it's the wrong choice? She'll blow and probably level the city._

 _Well everyone knows that you_ _always_ _cut the red wire! It's what they do in all the movies and tv shows!_

 _You're suggesting I use movies and tv as a source for romantic advice?_

 _Doesn't everyone?_

 _… that doesn't mean it's a_ _ **good**_ _idea._

 _Ya, but it'll be one hell of an explosion._

 _I think we need to call in the Demolition experts, handle this with a bit of care_

 _Joy kill, where is your sense of adventure?_

 _Currently occupied gleefully freefalling for my wolf_

 _So… you finally admit it then?_

 _Shut up_

 _You're just a sore loser_

 _I'll bite you…_

 _Okay okay shutting up_

"Nadine!" Judy snapped in a fizzing combination of anger and pain like that first almost calm moment when a mentos gets dropped in a coke bottle, "There's no 'maybe' about it! He's not only said as much but **_anyone_** even a _dumb country bumpkin_ _ **bunny**_ like _me_ can see it!"

 _Ummm… okay, you might be right, maybe don't cut that red wire_ , part of Nadine thought as she watched the bunny almost visibly smoke like she was ready to explode.

 _Ya think?!_

 _Maybe now would be the time for some of that careful handling? Like right now? Before we have to explain to the hospital how a bunny sent us there,_

"Okay, so he is in love with someone," Nadine started as calmly as she could and then hurriedly added, "but that's all you know and he hasn't made any choice yet, so… how do you know you don't still have a chance?"

Judy's ears dropped down like a popped balloon and she murmured, "Because I know Nick. And this isn't just some passing fancy. He's _really_ in love with her. I'm not going to steal his happiness just for my own."

 _Crap, this is bad, she's imploding now instead of exploding!_

 _Well try something else then!_

 _Damnit this is like trying to walk through a freaking minefield! What if I say the wrong thing?_

 _Well if you don't do something, you're going to have to explain to a savage fox why his bunny just fell apart!_

 _Well maybe he can comfort her then, who knows? That might just get through to her._

 _That might work… only problem with that plan is we'll still be in the hospital. And 'tiger beaten up by fox' doesn't sound much better than if it were by a bunny!_

 _Nick's good but he isn't that good. Judy might be a gamble but I can definitely take him._

 _Sure, normally. But that fox has some breathtaking overprotectiveness issues. *shudder* when his eyes go all greenish and half-feral *whine*…_

 _Oh come on, You're making him sound like the next Bruce Bear Banner from the movies!_

 _And did you not see the footage from the warehouse? The whole 'Puny Mammals! Nobody hurts Fox's Bunny!' rage? Good gods girl! he smashed that jackrabbit around like he was a swinging about a jump rope!_

 _That was only a jackrabbit…_

 _Oh? And what about what he did to the bear? Hell, he brought down half the freaking warehouse and that was just over insult!_

 _More of a veiled threat really, I'd do the same if anyone threatened Ralph like that._

 _Ugh… Focus! That's not the point, do you want him to go all green eyed and savage on you?_

 _Um… no._

 _Then do something and do it quick before the fox breaks free and goes all 'Nick Smash' on you for making his bunny cry!_

Not having any better ideas Nadine carefully laid a paw on Judy's shoulder again trying to comfort her.

"Judy, you know that Nick's in love with someone, right?" the bunny nodded her head and her lip started to tremble as her eyes got watery.

 _Crap, crap, crap! I'm a police officer not a therapist for the terminally lovesick, They didn't teach us how to deal with this stuff at the Academy!_

"Well," Nadine said quickly, crossing the fingers of her other paw and bracing herself as she prepared to cut the red wire, then at the last second decided to cut the blue one instead, "do you think he might… love _you_?"

Nadine waited for the explosion… and was still caught completely off-guard by it.

Judy laughed, and not in a very happy way.

"Of course he does! He makes a point to irritate me as much as possible just so he can tell me that right before I'm about to thump him!"

Nadine couldn't have been more surprised by the bunny's reaction than if Judy had splashed her in the face with ice cold water. She blinked feeling completely lost.

"You… you know he loves you?" she asked stupidly.

"Yes, Nadine. _That's_ part of the problem!" the bunny said with another short barking laugh.

"Would you mind explaining that one please?" Nadine asked, wondering if maybe this was just all some sort of weird dream as everything seemed to be unraveling and making less and less sense.

 _Please don't be a dream, Please don't be a dream, if this is all a dream then that means maybe Ralph didn't confess to me and then I'm going to be stuck loving him like Judy thinks she loves Nick-but-with-the-part-where-its-actually-unrequited-love,-not-just-'I-think-he-doesn't-love-me-while-he-really-does-love-me-and-we-just-can't-see-it,-and-Idon'twanttogobacktoburyingmyfeelingsIhaveforhimthatImightormightnothavebeenhidingforgodsknowhowlong,andwhycouldn'twejusthavestarteddatingaftermeetingattheacademyandPleasePleasePleasePLEASEdon'tletthisbeadream…_

"-he can't be in love with me because he _already_ 'loves' me." Judy said snapping Nadine out of her increasingly frantic mental panic.

"… _Huhsa-sayWHAT_?!" Nadine articulated elegantly.

At least this time Judy didn't laugh in that terrifyingly morose way and instead just sighed and started rubbing at her now watering eyes.

"Nadine, Nick loves me like a sister, as his best friend, he doesn't _love_ 'love' me."

The confusion and stress and tension that had been building all day, along with the denial of her almost, but not quite earlier sexual release that was smashed by the craziness of the phonecalls and a cold water dunking all seemed to combine in that moment with Judy's absolutely absurd and yet just barely believable twistedly logical rationalization that was like the cherry that caused Clawhauser's famous Zootopia records book attempt at an Ice Cream Sunday Extraordinar to buckle under its own weight and slide apart.

Nadine's eye twitched.

* * *

"OUCH!" Nick cried out as Ralph pulled on him, "Careful or you're just going to break it! It'll take weeks to grow back out!"

"Oh don't be such a sissy, Nick. Having one chipped claw for few weeks won't kill you." Ralph said with a grunt, before easing up and reevaluating the situation.

"You _really_ managed to dig them into the seat." He muttered impressed at just how stuck he'd gotten himself, "How the hell did you manage that anyway?"

"By accident, that's how." Nick snapped, "Now stop asking stupid questions and help me"

"Most have been one hell of an 'accident'," Ralph snickered before turning to Jack and Skye, "Okay that isn't working let's work on just one paw. Here Jack, grab his arm right there with Skye and pull on three, okay? One… Two…"

"Hey wait! No that's-"

"AAGGHHHHH!" The all froze as Nadine's infuriated shout crashed over them, "JUDY! THAT'S THE STUPIDEST, MOST CONVOLUTED REASONING I'VE _EVER_ HEARD! I Swear that if you weren't my friend I'd bat you around like rubber ball you until you saw reason!"

Ralph looked back at Jack and Skye, while Nick, still stuck to the boat seat, unsuccessfully tried to raise his head above the side to see what was going on.

Nadine had stood up and had both paws on her head looking like she might rip out her fur while her whiskers stood out in a crazed manner like she'd been zapped by lightning.

Judy was sitting on the bench looking stunned. She frowned and seemed about to speak, but Nadine leveled a paw at her and Judy shut up as her eyes crossed watching the large claw that snapped out to pointed right between her eyes.

"And why do you think that?!" Nadine roared at the bunny, "Humm? Have you asked or are you assuming?"

"But I-" Judy started to say in a confused voice but Nadine cut her off.

"NO BUTS!" she shouted, retracting her claw and not so lightly tapping Judy on the forehead, gaining a loud "Owww! Hey!"

"You listen here dumb bunny!" Nadine hissed lowering her voice menacingly, "You're a damned good cop but you're still pretty new and you have an issue of not questioning your own assumptions enough! How many times have I had to come in with the SWAT unit to pull your fluffy tail out of the fire when you let your _almost_ right theories lead you into trouble?!"

Judy looked down and mumbled something.

"Oh?" Nadine said giving her another tap, "And what about peanut thieves you tracked down? You had the whole thing figured out correctly _except_ that they weren't _squirrels_! They were gods damned **_elephants_**! You and Nick almost got stampeded with that one!" she glared at the bunny, "Do you want me to go on?"

Judy glumly looked down, her ears wilting.

"STOP. ASSUMING!" Nadine growled one last time and then turned, heading in their direction like an angry steam engine, huffing and puffing the whole way. Ralph could swear he could see a cloud of steam hanging over her head and gulped in trepidation. There were some scrambling sounds and Ralph looked to the side only to notice that Jack and Skye had vanished and that he was now alone in the boat with Nick.

"Hey! Deserters!" he spluttered in surprise but didn't have time to do anything else as two striped paws grabbed him and hoisted him out of the boat.

Ralph turned his head back toward the now very loud sounds of grumbling, almost growling mutters of 'Dumb Bunny idiotic fox stupid-' and accidentally booped his nose into Nadine's.

Her frown deepened, pulling back a little to show her fangs before she let out a huge huff that ruffled the fur of his muzzle.

Ralph put on his best grin and said, "My, what big beautiful teeth you have!"

That got a shorter huff and she nipped his nose before Ralph suddenly found himself being kissed so deeply that it was almost like she was eating his muzzle. Then just as he got over his shock and started to kiss her back, he blinked and found himself being set down next to the boat on the dock.

"Stay right there!" Nadine said sternly before turning back to the Fox stuck in the boat.

"Um… you're not planning on kissing me too, are you?" Nick said nervously but managed a fairly good smirk considering his awkward position, "Because I can't reach my tic-tacs in my pocket right now and I've got wicked bad breath… plus I think Ralph might object."

Nadine's ran a paw over her face with another growling mutter of, "Stupid Slick fox, stuck and _still_ can't just confess?!"

Then Nadine reached down with one paw, extending all her very impressive claws and Nick's smirk morphed into a startled, wide eyed 'Eeep' as she sank her much larger claws into the seat right next to his. Then she did the same to the other side of the seat and with a grunt, flexed her arms.

There was a cracking sound and with another jerk Nadine stood back up, lifted the now broken off seat top right out of the boat with one fox, claws still stuck, right along with it.

She brought the wide eyed, dangling fox right up to her face and snarled, "Stop being so damned slick and coy, **_understand_**?"

Nick nodded quickly and Nadine readjusted her paws grip on the broken seat top and squeezed. There was a series of cracking sounds and Nick fell onto his tail under a shower of splintered chunks of what had been the love boats seat.

"Now go over there and calm your partner down." She said in a voice the Chief would have been proud of as she pointed at a still shell shocked bunny sitting on the bench.

"Ummmm… you're going to have to pay for that…" the nervous sounding ride attendant interjected hesitantly as Nick scrambled over to Judy.

Ralph saw Nadine's irritation at the comment and thought it might be best if he handled this, since his tiger seemed to have reached her WildeHopps shenanigans limit for the day.

"Here, I'll take care of that." Ralph said, hurrying over to the moose before pulling out his wallet and trying not to snicker at the whole situation.

 _The stuff those two manage to get into,_ he thought with a grin, _at least Bogo isn't here with us today, he would have hit his WildeHopps limit far before now and_ _ **he**_ _would have been liable to break the entire boat, not just the seat._

"This'll cover it right?" he asked, handing across what should be more than enough to replace the simple bench seat top and the moose nodded dumbly, "Good, sorry about all the troubleee-" he trailed off as his view suddenly shifted wildly and he found himself flopped over Nadine's shoulder staring at her shapely rear and tail.

"I thought I told you not to move?" Nadine growled as she started walking back over to the rest of the group.

"Yep," Ralph said, his tail deciding that the current situation deserved some wagging, "And I'm not going anywhere."

There was some more muttering from Nadine before she adjusted her grip to keep his tail from waving in her face.

They stopped in front of the bench with the others, or at least Ralph _assumed_ they did since his view consisted mostly of what was behind them (though he was finding the fluid motions of her tail entrancing. It moved so differently than a wolf's and the stipes… and her…)

Ralph's ears twitched as Nadine's still gruff voice.

"Okay enough lollygagging around, are we going to this concert or not?" She asked pointedly and there were some mumbled accents.

"Then let's get moving." She said making shooing motions with her free paw and corralling the smaller mammals toward the exit like a mother duck corraling chicks.

Ralph adjusted his arms so his elbows were on Nadine's back with his paws supporting his head. Nadine didn't seem willing to let him go anytime soon and frankly he was enjoying himself quite a bit at the movement. The view wasn't as good as it was this morning, but her jeans did a nice job outlining her features and his memory and imagination were taking care of the rest. He let himself daydream for a bit as they walked, (or Nadine did) before he remembered the heart shaped sticker Nadine was wearing and snickered.

"What's so funny?" Nadine asked turning her head to look back at him and Ralph only grinned more looking down briefly before meeting her eyes and giving a short appreciative howl. Nadine tripped and stumbled a step before regaining her balance as her face flushed.

"Ralph!" she looked around as they reentered the main thoroughfare, before looking back at him, "Not in public! Jeez, mammals are going to stare!"

"Well, you're carrying me around, they're already staring." He answered grinning from ear to ear.

"That's because you might go running off and get lost in the crowd," Nadine grumped turning back forward, "I don't want to have to spend the entire concert trying to find one lost little wolf."

Ralph snickered again, his tail still trying to thump away under Nadine's paw, "Why, I don't think I've ever seen you this excited to go to a concert before Nadine! You don't have to worry, I'm not going to go anywhere."

"I'm excited because I want this day to be _over_ ," she grumbled putting her paw up to her face and rubbing it before muttering, "And I never thought I'd _ever_ have to do anything as hard as when I baby sat cubs as a teenager; this is sooo much more stressful than trying to herd young cats."

"I was kind of hoping our day wouldn't end…" Ralph said, his ears dropping and his tail slowing.

Nadine was quiet for a second before she finally let out a loud sigh.

"Ralph," she started, sounding worried and far more serious than usual, "After we're done here with our job today, you and me need to sit down and have a real conversation about _us_."

Ralph felt a jolt of panic at that as all sorts of thoughts exploded in his mind,

 _SHIT_

 _Did I screw up? Did I do something wrong?_

 _Calm down, if she wanted to dump you she'd have done it by now… literally._

 _NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD_

 _She did dump me earlier today!_

 _Sure… on her bed_

 _Which I_ _ **marked**_ _! Is she still mad about that?_

 _NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD_

 _Maybe I went too far in the tunnel?_

 _I'm pretty sure she wanted you to go farther…_

 _But what if she's having second thoughts about that now? What if I screwed up? I can't lose her now! I haven't even gotten to really tell her how much I love her!_

"Ummm…" he managed to say as his mind continued to reel, "That sounds… serious." He finished pensively and Nadine sighed again.

"Yes… yes it is." she said soberly, and Ralph's tail froze as his internal panic spiked like a reactor going critical at her next word, "maybe…"

 _Oh gods does she think this was a bad idea? Does she want to call this off? Just go back to being friends?_

 _*Internal howl of utter despair* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo!_

 _Do something! Quick! Beg if you have too!_

"maybe…" Nadine continued before he could pull himself together, "you could… could come back to my place afterward we're done here. I could make something for dinner or we could pick up something and then… talk? You…" She swallowed hesitantly as Ralph froze, "you… could stay over if it gets to late…" She gave an almost fearful glance back at him before quickly turning away and adding, "only if you want too."

Ralph's mind felt utterly blank for a moment before he finally seemed to comprehend what she said but before he could reply his tail started beating back and forth with such vigor that it broke free of Nadine's hold under her paw.

* * *

Judy followed along after _the_ Savages as they led the way down the street; a small part of her mind was still stuck contemplating the fact that _they_ were a couple and what that might mean about her chances… but most of it was still reeling in shock over what Nadine had said (more like roared) at her.

She'd always been rather proud of her detective skills and how she could piece together other mammals' motivations and actions to figure out what had happened or what they might do, and okay, if she was being honest she wasn't _always_ right (she still cringed a bit thinking back on how she might have solved her first case correctly instead of missing Bellwether's involvement when she'd assumed that the 'Nighthowlers' where just the name for the wolves involved in the cover up.) But she was nearly always right… well right enough that with Nick's help they'd always been able to figure the rest out in the end.

But that was the problem, Nick was the one that always helped her find the problems with her theories, and it wasn't like she could just ask him, not about this!

Judy stole a glance over at Nick who'd been rather quiet since Nadine had shouted at him too, though telling Nick to not be slick was like telling water not to be wet. She'd apparently rattled him a bit though because his tail was almost dragging along the ground and he had his mask was firmly fixed over his face letting nothing of what he might be feeling out. He looked up and their eyes connected for just a moment before Judy quickly looked away. Those deep green pools had had the same indecipherably pained and predatory, almost longing look that she'd spotted there earlier after their run in with the fortuneteller.

Nadine's words kept nagging at her, tugging at her heart and they wouldn't go away. What if he Nick _did_ feel something for her? What if…

She shook her head.

 _No No NO!_

 _That's to much like a dream come true. I'll get my hopes up and then I'll find out that he doesn't feel like that. And I couldn't TAKE THAT!_ She felt like screaming but held it in and blinked her eyes a few times before they started watering.

 _But…._

 _But NOTHING! He's already in love with someone else!_

 _With someone sure, what if Nadine's right?_

 _Then I would have Noticed!_

 _What about how he acts and what Skye said?_

 _He's acted no different around me than he has since the Night Howler case and he's only fallen in love recently! The logical conclusion therefore is that it's someone_ _ **else**_ _!_ She had to blink hard to not cry at that.

 _Isn't_ _ **that**_ _an assumption, plus he's been moody lately…_

 _And Rhinowitz said that's normal for predators in winter, and what's an assumption?_

 _That he only fell in love recently, he never said_ _ **when**_ _he fell in love._

 _Oh, then you're going to say that my long ears and short tail make me a 'foxy lady'? because that doesn't add up either._

 _And maybe that just means something different to him like cute does to you?_

 _And that's just hopeful wishing._

 _Then why don't we find out?_

 _And get my heart crushed forever?_

 _Better than living with_ _ **not**_ _knowing._

 _Not by much._

 _It's still better, and you know that question will eat you up from the inside out, you_ _ **have**_ _to know._

Judy sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment. She knew herself well enough to know that after asking herself, that she wouldn't be able to stop until she found out the answer. It just wasn't in her to do otherwise.

 _But… but not today…_ She thought to herself trying to distance herself from the pain of thinking about even the possibility that confronting Nick over his feelings would lead to her own hopes getting smashed. Today was supposed to be fun; just a fun day out with Nick where they could enjoy being together… as friends of course. And it had been fun… mostly… when she could keep herself from thinking about losing him to someone else, not that he was hers…

 _Tomorrow._ She decided resolutely, _I'll ask him tomorrow and I won't let him evade. I'll find out who he's in love with and… and i-if it m-might… possibly… … well, I'll ask him._

Decision made, Judy felt a mild bit of relief alongside her internal panic but was finally able to shove all the thoughts far back into her mind. If nothing else she was going to make sure that this concert was the most fun they'd ever have (and it had Gazelle, so how could it not be?). One way or another she'd at least have the memory of today that she could look back on and smile at.

With that and a bit of mental determination, helped along in no small part by the thought of seeing Gazelle sing live, Judy managed to regain her usually happy outlook. She had promised Clawhauser some photos of Nick enjoying himself at the concert. Maybe she could get him to break out some of his oldster dance moves again.

She actually giggled a little thinking about that. If there was one thing Nick _couldn't_ do, it was dance. That though, just made it more fun to be with him when he tried, because he'd do it if she pushed him just to make her smile. He would be there with her and they'd both be having fun and that's what mattered to her.

 _Maybe I can even try out some of his moves for Gazelle's 'Try Everything' song_ , she giggled again, _It would certainly be appropriate considering the name!_ Judy thought grinning widely now.

"You're looking chipper again," Nick said, glancing over at her, an almost smile flickering across his face, "I was getting worried there; I'm supposed to be the pessimistic moody mammal and you're supposed to be the upbeat optimist one."

"Well, we _are_ headed to go see _Gazelle_ live!" she said skipping out in front of him with a spring in her step and tail. She turned back to him and smiled, "That would make _anyone_ happy!"

Nick snorted, and she gave him a playful glare, to which he only shrugged, "I'm just happy I get to go there with you, otherwise I'm not sure it would be worth it."

"Don't say that around Clawhauser!" Judy said warningly hiding a grin as his comment soothed some of the lingering turmoil she could still feel, "I swear if you make too many comments like that around him he might do something drastic."

"Like what? Report me to the Chief for crimes of having good taste in music?" He said smirking in a way that she was sure he'd personally perfected to get her fur up in a fluff.

She stuck her tongue out at him, "More like report you to the Chief on suspicion of having your hearing damaged since you _obviously_ can't hear good music when it's sung!" Nick was still smirking at her in that particular way so she grinned evilly back and added, "And I might suggest to him that he gets Doctor Slowinski the sloth to do the hearing check up as well as a full physical _and_ have him play Gazelle's last album the… entire… time!"

Nick's smirk wasn't looking so smirky now.

"Or," she said taking advantage of the moment, "You can admit how awesome her music is and Clawhauser will never hear that little suggestion."

"Fine," Nick grumped, crossing his arms, "Gazelle's music isn't all- HEY!" he stopped and pointed at her accusingly, "Paws where I can see them and they better not be holding that carrot pen! I'm not falling for that trick twice in one day!"

Judy tried giving him her best innocent face, as she let go of her pen in her pocket and put her paws up, though her grin probably gave her away.

"I'm still waiting to hear it," She said, still having fun even if her plan hadn't completely worked.

He gave her a careful look, before sulking and finally muttering, "Her music isn't _that_ bad… for new age fad music."

"Well, coming from _you_ ," Judy said, taking a skipping a bit closer to him so she could bump his hip, "That's _quite_ the ringing endorsement!"

"Don't let it go to your head," Nick said trying to sound grumpy and failing, "I only like coming to these things because watching your take on 'hip-hop' dancing is hilarious."

"Is _Not_!" Judy scoffed before poking him and turning up her nose, "At least it's better than your grumpy rumble routine! It's like a clothes dryer taught you to dance!"

Nick bumped her hip back, "You're just jealous of my _groovy_ moves." He said with a smile and she broke out laughing.

"Oh my goodness, Nick! Nobody and I mean _nobody_ says things like 'groovy' anymore! What do you wear bellbottom jeans too?"

Nick smirked and polished his claws on his shirt, "Oh the good old days; I have to admit that they sure went better with my shirts… but shorts are _sooo_ much more comfortable."

The image of Nick with the Mister Fox pompadour wearing his flora shirt with _bellbottom_ jeans dancing under a disco ball popped into her head and she started giggling uncontrollably. If Nick hadn't put an arm on her shoulder to help her along she would have fallen over right in the middle of the thoroughfare, the image was so ridiculous.

It took a bit for her giggles to finally calm down but Nick kept his arm on her as if afraid she might be hit by some residual giggles and fall over, not that she minded the contact. She was actually just thinking about how nice it felt when she caught Nick glancing at her, his lips pressed together a bit too hard in a flat line, betraying some deeper thought that he was stuck thinking on.

"What's up?" she asked, only for the little slip in his expression to disappear as soon as she asked.

"Pretty sure the sky is," he responded without so much as a pause.

"Nickkkk," she said groaning and poked him, "What were you thinking about?" she poked him again as he opened his mouth to no doubt give her another quick witted response, " _No_ , what were you _really_ thinking about, you know what I mean."

Nick sighed looking away, "It's… nothing, just something stupid."

"Oh come on, Nick," she prodded, "I know that broody fox look, if you don't share you'll keep thinking about it all through the concert and then how will we have any fun?"

Nick sighed again, but this time in defeat. He gave her one cautious glance before hesitantly speaking.

"Back after the fortune teller… well you said that you liked a guy," Nick stopped speaking for a second as her shoulders went a bit stiff. Despite her suddenly racing heart she made an effort to relax, then realized her nose was twitching and nearly growled as she tried to suppress that reaction as well.

"I did," she said trying not to sound too curt, as her heart pounded and some part of her mind shouted _'Run, Run, Run, He's watching you, he'll find out, Run!_ ',

"What about it?"

Nick, now looking even more reluctant to speak slowly asked, "Well… you said he was taken… I, uh," he looked away as one paw went up to scratch his neck nervously, "well, I know it's stupid, but you don't… well don't like… um…" he glanced at her and swallowed, "You don't like Savage do you?"

" _WHAT_?!" Judy stumbled over her own feet and would have faceplanted if Nick hadn't caught her, she took a moment to regain control of her legs before looking at the vixen and hare ahead of them that they were following and then back at Nick with a completely flummoxed expression, "Why by Carrot picking Cabbages would you think I liked _him?!_ "

Nick gave her a sheepish grin, "Told you it was stupid. Just… I don't know," he said shrugging, "With how frustrated you were when we met him in line and what you said earlier, I just had this crazy idea that maybe well, you know, that you'd had a thing for him and with him being married…"

"Your right," Judy said looking right at Nick who blanched.

"That's absolutely crazy." She continued, "When would I have even met him before? We only met Skye during the joint case."

It took Nick a second to get his mouth working and then he mumbled something about during his time at the Academy, and she just rolled her eyes.

"No. I'd never even met him before, and nice as he might be I don't like his particular suave Mr. 'I'm the next Bond, shaken not stirred' attitude." She grimaced, "Skye can keep him because I wouldn't take him in a thousand years. I've got better taste than _that_." She said a bit pointedly at one of the stripped ears in front of them that had swiveled around to listen.

"First," Jack called back, shooting her a smirk, "I'm married to the world's best girl and have no interest in trading down." That managed to evoke a growl from Nick and Judy gave him a rather rude, one fingered gesture that Finnick had taught her (She'd have to thank him later, because he was right. There were just some circumstances when it was extremely handy).

Jack only continued to grin, "Second, I'm better than any fictional spy, plus I'm not that picky about my drinks. Walking into a bar your scoping out and using that line is like putting a blinking neon sign over your head screaming 'Wanabe Secret Agent!' And third, I'm not into cottontails, they're just not long enough for me," he smirked before giving the fluffy sandy-white tail next to him a _long_ and appreciative look.

Judy grumped but couldn't help mentally agreeing with him there. Nick's long fluffy monstrosity of a tail beat her little puff of an appendage ten ways to Bunnyburrow. She'd had dreams about his tail, well actually they'd been dreams about Nick… naked, but his tail did feature quite prevalently in those dreams… as well as a few other parts…

"Tail length doesn't mean anything," Nick snapped at Jack, almost growling, "Judy has a perfect tail, unlike that that lopsided thing your sporting. Her's is puffier than a cloud and flawlessly proportioned."

"Nick!" Judy squeaked feeling her face flush as he defended her, but only managed to splutter a bit before Skye turned around and gave Nick a knowing smile.

"I have to agree with Wilde, at least in part on this one Jack." She said reaching around and pinching his tail, causing the hare to give a small started hop, "The length of the tail doesn't matter, and you 'cottontails' sure live up to your name; they're _wonderfully_ soft and they certainly do an excellent job showing off your assets." She smirked, before winking at Nick, "Wouldn't you agree?"

Judy's mouth was just hanging open by the time Skye finished and winked. She glanced up at Nick only to find that he'd looked back down at her with wide almost terrified eyes. Nick's arm vanished from her shoulder and he began spluttering denials and apologies.

"No, well yes, but NO, I wouldn't know how her tail feels!" he said at Skye then glanced again down at her, his eyes going even wider, and waving his arms in front of him, "I swear Judy, I've never tried sneaking a feel! Not once! No matter how tempting it might have been, I would never grab your tail!" There was a twinge of pain at that and something must have shown on her face because Nick became almost frantic, "Not that I wouldn't want too. Anyone would, it's a wonderful tail! A great tail! Goes perfectly with the rest of your figure. Which is great! _Not_ that I've ever looked at it! Hustlers word that I haven't!-"

"Nick," Judy finally managed to say, her own thoughts jarred but recovering. He filched though like she'd hit him.

"It's alright, I know you'd never try groping me or anything like that, not like Leaps would anyway," she said frowning for a second at the memory before shaking them away and sighing. For a moment, she'd almost let herself believe that Nick might have thought her tail was _cute_ , the bunny meaning of cute not just cute 'cute', but she knew Nick and he had a secret penchant for soft normal cute things.

"Nick, you're not the first or last mammal that's wondered about how soft our 'cottontails' are." She said with a sigh as she continued trying to calm him down, because he didn't look calm at all, "I know you've thought about it," he blanched and she rolled her eyes, " _I've_ seen you look before, I'm a cop, remember Mr. _Hustler_?" she couldn't help smirking just a bit as his panicked expression. He looked almost like he did when she'd booted his stroller, ears splayed, eyes wide, tail puffed. He looked so much like might just bolt though, that she reached out and grabbed his paw.

"Nick, it's fine to be curios," she said soothingly, "remember back in the missing mammal's case with the 'Floofy' incident while getting the street cam videos?"

"That's different!' Nick all but squealed sounding like his adam's apple had lodged high in his throat, "That was just a hair poof! Not a _tail_! And I'd never **_ever_** have been interested in her-"

" _Nick_ ," Judy said, squeezing his paw and causing him to snap his mouth shut, " _It's alright_. I felt it too remember? And I get the difference between that and a tail, its why I was so upset about what I did on the boat. I'm so sorry about that. You'd never do anything like that to me and I-"

"That's different too!" Nick interjected, a bit of resolve conflicting with the panic in his voice, "You didn't do anything wrong, I already told you that. And my tail is longer anyway. If I tried that I'd essentially be-" He stopped speaking abruptly and looking away, before taking a shaky breath and sighing, "Okay, how about… how about we both stop apologizing and just go enjoy your concert?" he asked morosely still not looking at her.

Judy blinked at his sudden change but she could feel a slight shake in him through his paw. She didn't think she'd ever seen Nick this rattled before and didn't understand it.

"Okay," she said giving his paw another squeeze and feeling him return it like a silent thank you. She couldn't help but wonder if this had something to do with the current season as well. _Maybe just another quirk about winter?_ She thought, as she tried soothing her ruffled fox, "Lets just-"

"AGHHHhhhhh!" Nadine's voice cut her off, "RALPH! STOP THAT!"

Judy looked back to see Nadine trying to grab hold of Ralph's frantically waving tail as it slapping back and forth across her muzzle. His tail was wagging so enthusiastically that despite Nadine's best attempts she simply couldn't keep a hold on it and she ended up getting smacked across the nose a half dozen more times before she dumped Ralph right off of her shoulder.

Ralph landed a bit awkwardly but recovered and then in a surprise move hugged Nadine fiercely before pulling back grinning like a he'd just won the lottery, his tail still a waving blur behind him.

Nadine looked like she didn't know whether to be happy or mad at his actions.

"You need to find a way to control that thing," she muttered blushing slightly as she rubbed her nose, "A danger to public safety, that's what it is."

There were more than a few snickers from other mammals on the street and the food court that they were passing as well as some hushed whispers.

"Is that them?"

"Sure looks like it."

"I still don't get it, aren't they supposed to be natural enemies?"

"Well I think there adorable! Have you ever seen a wolf look that happy?"

"I thought there was only one bunny and fox couple?"

Nadine cast a mild look of annoyance toward the hushed conversation amid the tables, which did very little to quiet them.

"Nothing to see here," Ralph called over jovially, motioning for the mammals to look back to their own business, "Go back to eating your food or whatnot."

"Ya," Nick chimed in, "If you keep gawking, we'll have to start charging you. 10 dollars if you want to see them kiss and 20 if you want to take pictures."

Nadine growled at him.

"Nick!" Judy said aghast before stifling a reaction to laugh as more than a few pairs of mammals in the food court pulled out money and started shouting request.

"I got a ten!"

"Here's a twenty!"

"I got another twenty for the fox and bunny to kiss!"

That last one killed Judy's amusement as she gapped in shock, only for a paw to gently push her hanging jaw back up and then use that paw to turn her to face a very smug looking fox.

All she had time to do was take in his grin and hear him say, "It's a hustle, _sweetheart_ ," before he leaned in to kiss her and Judy's world seemed to explode.

Really, it was more of just a light peck than a real kiss but that little clarification mattered less to her right at that moment than the difference between a jelly donut and a frosted donut to Clawhauser. The moment his lips touched hers it seemed like a rocket in her mind went off, blasting her ears straight up on end before exploding in a round of ringing explosions (or cheers from the crowd). It was like everything she'd ever imagined from a story book except that the moment didn't last forever. In fact, the moment was far _far_ too short for her.

 _Son of a Carrot and a Cabbage!_ She thought in a daze as Nick's lips left hers after the briefest touch, _That was supposed to be like a small eternity! That's what all my research with those romance novels said! Those lying good for nothing untrustworthy dime store novels! That was over before it really even started! I didn't even get a chance to kiss him back!,_ she wailed in her mind, still frozen in place with her ears ramrod straight as Nick leaned over to one, smirking and whispered,

"That's payback for the love boat and making me get my claws stuck, just remember _that_ , the next time you try grabbing my tail."

Nick turned as she just stood there like a statue labeled 'dumb bunny' and started walking toward the food court tail swooshing gently in an absurdly smug manner.

There was another mental wail in her mind as Nick moved away and with an unconscious, yet herculean effort as her mind screamed, ' _NOOOO, I'm_ _ **Not**_ _done with you, You dumb fox! That wasn't a proper kiss!_ ' she managed to break through her petrification just enough to reach out and grab at Nick's tail intent on pulling him back to properly kiss her. Only, she'd been a moment too slow and her paw just missed grabbing the tip of his departing tail.

She could only blink stupidly as she looked at her empty paw, while Nick started collecting the cash. He turned back and called, "Come on Ralph, what are you waiting for? These mammals are waiting!"

Judy, managed to turn her head just enough amid her sluggishly glum thoughts at her missed opportunity, to see Nadine, looking wide eyed and terrified garb both of Ralph's arms, pinning them to his sides as he turned to her with a happy grin.

"NO! Don't even think of it Ralph Wolfoorrr…" she trailed off as Ralph leaned up and placed his nose against hers. The tiger's eyes seemed to suddenly get rather wide and then she was kissing Ralph, pulling him toward her rather than keeping him away.

The sight made it feel like something in Judy was breaking and she couldn't help the anguished jealous thoughts of how much she wanted that for herself, how she wanted to kiss Nick like that.

Nadine broke the kiss after a few moments and pulled back enough to glare like she was shooting daggers at Ralph.

"I hate you sometimes," she said her glare intensifying as she spoke, but Ralph just grinned, his tail wagging furiously again and Nadine growled at him before kissing him deeply once more. Then, letting him go except for one paw she took, stomped over to Nick, leading Ralph. Nick was just flicking through the cash he'd collected when she snatched it out of his paw and he gave a startled, 'Hey!'

"There was only one call for the bunny and fox," she said slapping a twenty she pealed from the stack onto his chest before shoving the rest of the money into Ralph's paw and pointing at him, nearly snarling as her finger pressed into his nose.

"Because of that your buying dinner tonight… and tomorrow." She added after a moment.

Ralph's smile had faltered as she pointed menacingly at him but resumed, even brighter than before, at that statement.

"You want _me_ to pay for the meal?" He said, sounding giddy, before bursting out, "Absolutely! I'm paying, I'll get you the best dinner you've ever had!"

Nadine looked at him stupidly for a second before facepalming with a groan before looking at the sky pleadingly, "Godsdamned wolves and their stupid customs, why can't they just do dating the normal way?"

Ralph snickered at that, "Nadine, how we're doing this is absolutely _not_ the normal way, not by wolf standards or anyone else's."

Nadine groaned again at that but was interrupted by a wolf couple sitting at one of the tables near them.

"So is it all true then? What they said?" the she-wolf asked with a look somewhere between scandalized and enthusiastically delighted.

Both Nadine and Ralph looked rather confused as they turned to face the pair.

"Is _what_ true?" Nadine asked just as Ralph gulped, saying, " _Who_ said what?"

The wolf couple at the table exchanged looks and then the she-wolf's partner cleared his throat, "What they've been saying on the news about you two and them," he gestured toward Nick and Judy, where she was standing still mostly frozen. A cold fear started building in her stomach and her ears began to drop as the wolf continued, "The whole bit with the secret romances and how you two have broken with tradition and pack customs and eloped just so you could be together."

Judy could feel her breathing start to become ragged and fast as she tried to sort through what was being said… what was being implied…

"To go that far just for the one you love," the she-wolf said with a wistful sigh taking her partners paw in hers, "It's _so_ romantic."

" _What?!_ " Ralph managed to get out in a sort of startled yip, while Nadine just looked like she was choking, "We haven't _eloped_ or broken pack rules! ... Well… not _that_ many of them… not any of the important ones anyway," he finished trailing off as he gave Nadine a very worried look.

The she-wolf's partner frowned slightly at that and, as if wanting to confirm it, asked, "You all are the two officer couples from precinct one, right?"

Judy's heart just about stopped as her eye's suddenly found and locked to Nick where he stood a few feet away, hackles and tail fur suddenly bristling as he looked at her with a terrified expression.

 _Two couples_ …

The thought rolled through her mind like a snowball of doom rolling down a hill getting larger and larger…

 _Mammals think there are two couples… at precinct one… Nadine and Ralph… and… and… and…_ Judy's mind kept locking up at that point and looping.

"Of course they are!" the she-wolf said flicking her mate's ear, "how many other interspecies couples like that are there?"

 _Two_ _ **interspecies**_ _couples…_ _TWO…_

The other wolf just shrugged and pointed toward were Jack and Skye were, watching the spectacle with apparent delight, and the she-wolf huffed.

"Smartass, they're dead ringers for the pictures the news was showing. See," she pointed toward one of the tv's mounted around the food courts eating area and Judy looked up to see ZNN afternoon news broadcast with showing some interview with a doctor or professor… and also showing two photos in the corner of the screen, one of Ralph and Nadine holding paws and another of Nick with his head in her lap with the headline scrolling across the bottom reading 'ZNN Special Valentine's Day Report: ZPD's Undercover Couples. Now live with Dr. Viktor Vandyke, Mammal Behavioral Specialist.'

 _Oh gods… Oh gods… Nooo!_

* * *

Greg Wolford followed after his mate as she stormed down path in the amusement park like a miniature thunder storm and grinned. Cassandra had always been a bit of a firecracker, fiercely protective of their pack and especially their family, though when she _really_ got going she could out bullhead a bison. In those situations, (like now) he'd learned over the years working with her as his mate and the head of their pack that it was better to let her run her course and just make suggestions here or there to provide a little guidance, sort of like riding a raging river. It was pointless to try and fight against it, but if you were smart you could navigate around the dangerous obstacles. And _nothing_ could get Cassy's hackles in a twist like a threat to their pups, no matter how old they were.

He wish his son hadn't been so secretive about his growing relationship; he couldn't really fault Ralph for being a bit hesitant about bringing up that he wanted to court a _tigress_ but by not telling them until the whole situation had blown up? Well, it sure had made one hell of a mess and dropped it right in there laps with no warning or time to prepare.

 _The Silverclaws feel slighted, the conservative old codgers in our pack are in an uproar, and the packs are calling a city wide meeting of alpha's for the next full moon to discuss this 'threat' to pack tradition and way of life. It wouldn't be half as bad if they hadn't already mated, but they have…_

The situation hadn't looked very good earlier this afternoon when they'd first found out about it and then started getting messages from the other packs as the news spread. There'd been one solution though, and it was even an easy and quick fix to all the problems. They could simply have exiled Ralph; kicked him out of the pack and in one stroke calmed all the tensions. But the moon would fall out of the sky before Cassandra would do that to one of hers. Ralph might have had a bit of an independent stubborn streak that lead him into trouble, just like now where he'd blindly followed his heart without at least using his brain to stop himself from kicking just about every stone he could while going down that path. But then again, he'd inherited his mother's stubborn streak.

Cassandra glared at two elephants who quickly got out of her way as she continued down the street searching for her son and his new mate and he smiled as he followed shaking his head. She'd told him that if Ralph was forced out, that she'd leave too and he'd concurred; he didn't even bother asking Ralph's brother because he already knew what Bill's choice would be. They'd have to give up the position of alphas of the Savanna Pack, would lose the protection of the pack, would essentially be exiling themselves to be outcast from the packs, but if nothing else they'd still have the core of what any pack was based on, family.

Before things had gotten _that_ bad though, he'd pointed out that they still had a just over two days until the next full moon to work with before the alpha's counsel and little time as that might be, it was still enough if they moved quickly. The real key to the situation was their own pack. A large pack meant strength, but it also came with difficulties, like an inherent inertial resistance to any sort of change. And this _was_ a change, a _huge_ change, a freaking _tiger_ of a change. The closest thing to something like this was when the small Redwoods pack had accepted a coyote into their group and that had caused an uproar among the city's packs for months, not that the other packs were able to do anything about it since the Redwoods had stood together in their decision. And that was the key. If they could get the entire pack to stand together it wouldn't matter what the other packs thought. They'd moan and complain and howl but in the end it would be as useless as barking up a tree.

Problem was, their pack wasn't unified. Not on this. The idea of accepting a _feline_ into the pack was just too… different for some of them to even consider. Felines didn't get along with wolves, never had, never would, and that was that to them.

But it was their job as Alpha's to hold the pack together and any good alphas knew how to work their pack and even get the most stubborn of the resistant wolves to pitch in and help; and the first part of solving any problem was to understand what the root of the problem was. All he'd needed to do was show Cassy what their problem was and she'd been off like shot to fix it. Well, more like circumvent it in this case, but it would still work.

She'd practically pulled a deus ex machina in the last few hours, twisting all the situations and problems together so they'd work to their advantage, pulling favors and making arrangements so that in one final move she could fix all the whole situation. That last piece though, needed Ralph and his new mate, or fiancée as she technical was now given the legal paperwork that had been filed.

Cassy had managed to convince Bill to cover Ralphs date in such a way that he'd thought it was his own idea to go spend the evening entertaining a pretty she-wolf. That had prevented the Silverclaws pack from feeling like they'd been openly and publicly humiliated when her date didn't show because he'd ditched her to be with a tiger. Bill wasn't Ralph, and there would be grumbles about the switch up but that was far better than starting a pack feud. And in the meantime she'd managed to contact their pack's lawyers and Nadine Fangmeyer's parents and set all the arrangements in order. Everything from getting the feline family sudo legal status as their own pack, to preparations within their pack, to a court subpoena for two runaway pack members just in case Ralph and his mate in their love induced idiocy decided to be obstinate.

Cassy's plan, as was typical of her, was straight forward. The pack's problem was _accepting_ a tiger into the pack and they didn't have time to reason with and cajole all the problem pack members that objected. But if the tiger was _already_ part of the pack… well then what would the issue be? No doubt there would be no end to griping about her high handed methods but all those tradition bound dissenters, worrying about the pack's prestige and pride, the ones that were causing issues right now would suddenly become there strongest supporters after the tiger was made part of the pack. It was one thing to argue that a member of the pack with a secret relationship with someone outside the pack (a relationship they would see as harmful and threatening to the pack) should be ousted and another to kick two pack _members_ out just because they or other packs disapproved. Things like that simply weren't done. It went against _tradition_. And it wouldn't matter if one of those pack members was a tiger or a sheep, they would still be part of their pack. And the other packs disapproval would, if anything, galvanize them to rally around their new member and defend her even if they didn't like it. That was simply how packs worked.

So, the Fangmeyer 'pack alphas' would be here by tomorrow, (Greg snickered, thinking about that little legal work around and their amusing conversation with the rather befuddled tiger parents that were suddenly thrust into the quandary wolf politics). The paperwork was already prepared and ready to sign and they had some of their more trusted pack members working on the preparations for tomorrows pack marriage ceremony to formalize their son and his mate and bring her into their pack from the 'Fangmeyer pack' (Greg snickered again at that. Who had ever heard of a _feline_ pack?). And all of it would already be done and over with before inter-pack meeting the next day. Hell, Cassy had even managed to make a deal with ZNN; they would be allowed to cover the wedding so long as she got final approval of the front page news article they were planning for the next morning. If handled right they could use the public recognition and support to boost their pack's prestige and use it as a political hammer to bash down any dissent from others. Now they just needed to make sure their son and his fiancée actually made it to their wedding.

"You know Cassy, we could just go wait for them at her apartment, they're sure to head back there after they're done with their date today." Greg said after they'd circled back around to where they'd started searching for the 'runaways', feeling like it was the right moment to try calming his mate a little. They did have some time to find Ralph and his tiger after all.

"I'm not chancing it," Cassandra said in a huff, crossing her arms as her tail swung in an agitated manner. "This whole scheme will come tumbling apart if they're not at the ceremony tomorrow afternoon. It needs to happen before the meeting and we can only keep our problem wolves distracted for so long. We are going to find them and bring them back one way or another so we can make _sure_ they aren't so much as a second late. You still have the court order right?"

He patted his pocket, "Right here, dear, just where it was a few minutes ago. But I don't think just wandering around is going to lead us to them."

She nearly growled in frustration, "And what would you suggest, then? I caught their scent a few times but they've crisscrossed the paths enough that with so many other mammals walking through here, I can't track them!"

"Well…" he said trying to introduce some humor into the situation to lighten her mood, "Maybe we can ask the fortuneteller." He said grinning and pointed over at the old gypsy goat in the fortuneteller's booth to the side. "You know, her being a soothsayer and all, she could probably tell us right where they are… and then maybe, once we find them, I don't know… we could keep them on a short leash and maybe have a little fun here ourselves before we bring them home? It is Valentine's day after all and we _did_ just buy very expensive tickets to the festival. It wouldn't hurt to enjoy ourselves too."

"Greg! This is Ralph's future we are talking about!" she all but shouted, seeming about ready to work herself into a panic, "Our _family's_ future! How can you be thinking about having _fun_ right now?!"

He stepped forward and gave her a quick kiss right before she boiled over and blew up. It seemed to work because he could feel a bit of the tension leave her as her stiff shoulders slumped, eased just a little.

"We'll find them. We have until tomorrow afternoon, don't worry," he said comfortingly, leading her over to the fortuneteller, "We already got all the hard work done and faster than I would have believed possible. And no one will suspect what we are doing until its already over. We can relax a little now, all we need to do is make sure everything goes to plan."

"Like making sure that Ralph and Nadine _actually_ show up to their own wedding?" she asked tiredly.

"Exactly. And that won't be too hard, trust me." He replied bringing her to a stop in front of the goat who had a sign on her booth that said 'On Break – Crystal Ball recharging, Check back in 15 minutes' though he ignored that and cleared his throat loudly.

The fortuneteller, who'd been snacking on some sort of grass energy bar and watching a news report on her phone looked up, seeming rather annoyed.

"What? Can't you see the-" she started irritably but Greg, arm still wrapped around Cassy supportively, quickly motioned with his eyes back and forth from her to his wife trying to communicate what he wanted.

The goat frowned for a second, then gave a few coughs and continued on in a more mysterious sounding voice.

"Can't you see that you've come to the right place? What can Madam Pearl help you with today? Do you need your fortune told? Maybe have your paw read? Or maybe an answer told, Madam Pearl and her crystal ball know all!"

Cassy sighed and gave him a pained glance, "Greg this is silly and we don't have time for this."

He gave a kiss on the nose, "Trust me." he said smiling, "It might be silly but I'll bet it'll help."

Maybe not help them find Ralph and his tiger, well… Nadine, he really needed to break the habit of thinking of his soon to be daughter-in-law as 'the tiger' or 'his mate', but this would help because Cassy needed a bit of stress relief right at the moment. Give her a problem she could face head on and nothing would stop her, but this constant worrying and not being able to find Ralph and Nadine was running her ragged.

Cassandra sighed again but let him push her forward and up to the booth. She crossed her arms and glared at the old nanny goat.

"Fine, _Mrs. Pearl_ , if you know all then tell me what I need to know," She said making it clear that she thought this was nothing but a scam.

"Ohhhh, A unbeliever!" The goat started off in a bit of a quavering voice before grinning and tapping her crystal ball, "You've obviously come to old Madam Pearl for some help, yes you have."

"Obviously," Cassy said rolling her eyes, "Though I doubt that you can even figure out what that problem is, let alone help us."

"Hummm. Let's see if you're right then," the goat said hunching over her crystal ball, making a performance of looking into it. Greg was standing behind and to the side of his wife, who was agitatedly tapping a claw on her crossed arms, and could see the old gypsy goat looking at him through the distorted view of the crystal ball.

"Hummm… what do we have here, what problem does my crystal ball show that you need help with?..." she asked mysteriously and he saw her raise an eyebrow through the distorted reflection.

Greg grinned, and making sure he was out of his wife's peripheral vision put a paw up to shade his eyes as he moved his head around like he was looking for something.

"Uh what is this!" The goat said with sudden shock in her voice, "You're searching for something… hummm… what could it be?..."

Greg made a rocking motion with his arms like he was holding a baby and then pointed looked at his wife.

"Looking for a child! Looking for a lost child you are!" the nanny goat said throwing more theatrics into her voice as Greg quickly shook his head and held up two fingers, smirking now.

"-No, _Two_ lost children!" The fortuneteller quickly corrected still with her head down over the crystal ball as she continued her performance adding in some additional gasps for effect as her reflect through the ball nodded ever so slightly at him while his wife's tapping paw stopped and she gave the fortune teller a startled look.

Greg made a flexing motion and the goat's reflected expression frowned so he tried again. The goats eyes widened with understanding as she continued in her a quavering voice, "… A fine strong boy and… hum…" Greg used his paws to try and outline the figure of the larger tigers body shape, "… and a… strange larger boy?" the fortune teller said with some confusion as Greg quickly shook his head waving his arms, and the goat suddenly made a startled noise with a shocked expression as if seeing something new in the crystal ball as she used the reflection through it to shoot him a quick glare. Greg rolled his eyes and cupping his paws in front of his chest and bouncing them like he was bouncing melons.

"No! No! A girl, A Girl!" the goat suddenly as if the crystal ball had revealed the answer to her, "Your searching for a boy and a girl!" Greg saw the goat give a short glance toward where she put her phone down and then a light of recognition spark in her eyes, "Your searching for your son and his mate, a young wolf who's fallen in love with… with… a tiger!" she finished acting surprised like she'd just been shown that by the crystal ball.

Despite the fact that her arms were still crossed, Cassandra looked impressed. She huffed again but then said to the gypsy, "Fine, so can you help me find them or not?"

"Certainly! Certainly! I am Madam Pearl after all!" the goat said with a flourish making her costume jewelry jingle.

Cassandra uncrossed her arms and sighed like she couldn't believe what she was doing and then muttered, "Alright, how do I find them so they don't miss their wedding? They're proving harder to chase down than a gaggle of geese." She finished irritably.

The goat looked up with a sudden amused snort, "A gaggle? How many geese are in a gaggle?"

"Seven," Greg answered, nodding his head sagely like it was a serious question, "There's at least seven geese in a gaggle."

"Seven?!" the nanny goat said in a shocked voice that Greg was pretty sure hid another amused snort. The fortuneteller looked back down into the crystal ball then made a startled expression and noise and in a deeper commanding voice said, "Then you must howl at the moon seven times and you will be shown the way! Beware though, and carful or doomed will you be! DOOMED!" she finished throwing up her hooves in a dramatic gesture sending all her jewelry jingling and jangling."

"Oh that's ridiculous!" Cassandra said huffly and crossing her arms again, "I bet you say something like that to _every_ wolf that gets there fortune from you!"

The gypsy goat shrugged putting her 'on break' sign back in front of her and picking her phone back up, unpausing the news broadcast she was watching, "You don't _have_ to listen to my advice dearie," she said with a distracted smirk.

Cassy growled at the goat and Greg moved up to put his arm back around her to guide her a few steps away, though he made sure to subtly leave a few 'thank you' bills on her table which he noticed seemed to disappear shortly afterwards. Cassy, though still irritated, didn't seem nearly as tense as she was before so he'd gotten his money's worth.

"Pointless, that was pointless." She said leaning into him, "Really, howling? That's just so stereotypical!"

"Well, I thought she might just have a point." Greg said smirking as Cassy's mouth dropped.

" _What?!_ Why would you think that?! We'd look like fools and might even get in trouble for starting a howl in public! Other mammals already think wolves are strange enough and we don't need to be dealing with _another_ noise violation fine from the city!"

"Starting a howl might just work though," he said and kissed her cheek playfully, "If he's anywhere nearby and gets caught up in it, we'll hear it. And when have you ever been afraid of what other mammals thought of us?"

"But!… But!..." she stammered looking at him and he smiled.

"You know I'm right," he said and she huffed.

"I know we're probably going to get in trouble just like when we were younger!" she replied.

"And when did that ever stopped us?" he asked, still smirking and she puffed out her cheeks obstinately, so he continued, "Soooo… are we going to cause a little bit of trouble?"

She sighed, then kissed him, before saying, "Of course we are. Especially, if it helps us find our pups."

Greg reached out and took her paw in his as he shifted to stand in front of her, paws clasped to each other's, as their noses touched.

"Ready?" Greg asked with a smile and Cassy smiled back for the first time that day. It made his heart warm and feel like everything would always turn out alright, just so long as they were together and he could see that smile.

* * *

A/N

...

Operations Clock: 6.5 hours

...

Wait... did you really thing this was the end? *Snicker*

This is just where things start getting interesting.

Muhahahahahaha

...

Supply Division:

Extra Fluff now available courtesy of **myrza289** on Deviantart. This is an epicly Fluffy 'Daww inducing pic inspired by a particular scene in the last chapter. Check it out here:

 **myrza289** **(.dot.)** **deviantart** **(.dot.) com** **/art/Commission-Double-Date-679664971**

 **...**

Secret Squirrel Division Report:

Somebody gave the squirrels coffee and that was a baaaaad choice. It was like having a squad of nightmarish hyperactive fluffballs running amuck. On the other hand they acomplished quite a bit of thievery (Redact that last word) mission critical scouting. Loot list (Redact that last 2 word) Aquired resourses and 'voluntary' assistance listed below:

MinscLovesBoo has successfully been raided for all of his new ideas as well as temperately captured and forced to work on this chapter to help with resolve a few issues. The squirrel division arranged for him to think he escaped but is tracking him so that he will unknowingly lead us to his secret stock pile of ideas.

*Snicker* Erinnyes01 knows what he did and its all his fault for that bit of inspiration. For everyone else, well unless they find the clue about it they (you) obvious don't have the clearance to know about it. If they (you) did, well then they (you) already know.

Squirrels reported a soothsayer tipped them off, and that **' A Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum'** um I mean 'Concert' *snicker* and we aren't even there yet are we jknight97? Ehem, Squirrels currently monitoring the situation, though odd two wheeled devices are reported to be seen in the distance.

Ideas hustled from GusTheBear for a jar of honey. The squirrel squad rather proud of this very successful hustle for names and quotes.

Cimar of WildeHopps Turalis reported to be sneaking about planting idea mines such as gokhan16's 'Nick Smash' See file addendum: **gokhan16** **(.dot.)** **deviantart (.dot.) com /art/Nick-Smash-678194747**

Plot error reported by squirrel scout 'Panoctu' - error justification added and covered up. Hopefully we buried this one deep enough that no one will ever find it.

...

Captain of our fluffy band,

Cottentail is here at hand,

And that youth, oh blind is he,

Pleading for his lover's fee, but too damned quietly!

Shall we their fond asinine pageant see?

Ye Gods, what fools these mammals be!

...

-From the Soothsayers Warning Fables: Don't Puck with a Tigress' Winternight Dream


	13. Chapter 13 - Chaos Magnets

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +6.5 hours

...

Disclaimer:

Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep.. Beep. Beeeeeeep...

.

.

.

"Huh... firing mechanism must have been a dud..."

"Jeeze sir! I thought I was going to have a heart attack! Well at least since this story Nuke is dead and not continuing we might survive."

Beep... ... ... Beep... ... Beep... ... Beep...

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!?"

"Damnit sir! We might _have_ to get the grinch to help us if we want any chance of disarming this, He's the only one of us that has full knowledge of how all the stolen ideas and materials from Disney work in this thing, and we _can't_ have it blow up here!"

"Go search the ship for coffee, any coffee, even instant coffee *shudder* if you have to. We might be able to use that to bargain with him."

"Aye, Aye, Sir!"

"Ummm... that might not be a good idea to bargain with him right at the moment though..."

"And why not Petty Officer?"

"He got the duck tape off his mouth and is monologing now..."

 _"Monologuing?"_

"Yes sir, Monologuing. Its really rather disturbing..."

*Captin goes over and opens closet door*

"Muhahahhaha! For this foolish world will forever fall to Fluffy Fear from this forsaken figure's flippant foibles written forth from fiendish fantasy! For I shall forge such frivolously flirtatious and facetious Fluffy fables and fling them forth forevermore! For no one from frailest fellows to the fiercest foe can flea from my far flung flood of frightful written frippery. And you, fool, who hears of fuzzy foxy furry fluff and faultily looks forward to my fury without the faintest foreboding or fear; For from your fascination for fictitious fluff was I infected, this fiend formed and fabricated with but one function, a vengefulness to inflict upon my flippant framers, the fount of my deformation, a freshet of such surfeit fevered fictional fancy and Fuzzy story flux that they fall flailing before my Fluff fueled firestom of ferocious furor.

For only by fluffy folly will my vengeance be formed… *Evil Cackle* and if you have not heard of my infamy, let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me Z."

*closes door, then locks door, then moves a chair under its handle.*

"Damnit! Who let the Grinch watch V for Vendetta?! Don't go giving him ideas!"

* * *

Supply Division Pre-Supply!

.

Previous Chapters Re-Editted!

.

 **Bonus!**

Since anyone who made it here past that _horribly_ long wait, the supply division has arranged for some pre-fluff for you all!

.

Chapter 13 Cover Art!

courtesy of Bukoya

 **bukoya-star DOT  deviantart DOT com /art/Tail-Fascination-694980229?ga_submit_new=10%3A1501103131**

(Can also be found by googling 'bukoya' and looking in his Deviant Art Gallery for 'the picture called 'tail fascination')

.

* * *

Chapter 13 – Chaos Magnets

"Oh this should be good," Jack said quietly, leaning over to Skye as they watched from the side of the food court as _everyone's_ attention fixed on the ZNN Broadcast. She quietly shushed him, though she was grinning broadly too.

 _'-Biting and nipping among predators can be anything from strictly playful, to intimate…'_

" _Intimate_?"

Every mammal's head in the food court shifted from the TV screen with the news broadcast to the grey wolf that had spoken, "Nadine does he mean like-"

"NOOO!" all the heads swiveled to the suddenly flustered tigress next to him that he was looking at with a curious expression.

"No _what_? No, it's not playful? No, its not intimate? Because when I nipped you earlier-"

" _SHHH_!" the tigress desperately tried to quiet him as she glanced around only to see everyone, including the shell-shocked bunny and fox staring at them and squeaked like a mouse.

"You know," Wolford continued despite her efforts to stop him, "you never answered me when I asked about that before, that or about the nose _boops_." Fangmeyer's squeak this time was so high it was almost inaudible and her eyes got a little wide and panicky as Wolford's tail began to wag, "Because I'm _starting_ to think that all that isn't just playing around like it is for wolves."

"YES, I mean _Yes_ it is! _Is_ just play! Aghh! No! Don't listen to a thing he's saying!" She nearly shouted sounding panicked while gesturing agitatedly at the TV.

All the heads in the food court bouncing back and forth between the two as they watched, then followed her gestured to the TV.

 _'As for the feline 'dominance fights'…'_

There was a terrified and strangled sounding meep from the tiger and she threw her paws over the wolf's eyes as his head also followed her wild gestured.

"Ralph! I said _Not_ to listen! He doesn't have a clue what he's talking about!"

"But he's a feline."

"Doesn't Matter!"

"and a behavior specialists."

"all the reason more not to listen to him!"

"Sooo then… this whole thing about dominance fights?"

"That's **_Different_**!" The tiger yelped, her ears splaying back as the wolf looked up at her and she seemed to try looking in any direction but at him, "We've had all sorts of fights since we've known each other!" She said desperately, cheeks now reddening as the wolf caught her gaze and she waved her paws back and forth in front of him urgently, "Sparing matches at the academy! Practice at ZPD training! Even just practice during workouts at the gym! We have fights all the time! There's _nothing_ different about what happened this morning!"

"I didn't say anything about this morning," Wolford said a grin appearing as his tail picked up speed.

"Ohhh! Score one for the wolf!" Jack snickered quietly and Skye had to work not to laugh as the poor blushing tiger only managed to stammer.

"Shush you!" She said, swatting him playfully as a giggle escaped, "No comments from the peanut gallery!"

"You could always join me in the peanut gallery," Jack said offering her a bag of roasted peanuts with a smugly charming grin, "It's more fun here anyway."

Skye tried to resist, she really did but Jack just smiled with that charming devil may care smile of his and shook the bag teasingly.

She huffed before accepting and taking a pawful of the peanuts, "Where did you even get these?" she whispered, turning back to watch the show as she popped some peanuts into her mouth.

Jack just smiled as he sidled up next to her, his arm wrapping around her back. "The peanut food stand right behind us." he chuckled and she huffed again even as she leaned into him and let her tail wrap around his legs. She couldn't help but smile as she munched on a few more peanuts and watched the drama unfold.

* * *

 _Oh Gods, Oh Gods, Oh Gods! Why are we on TV?!_

Nadine's mind was in a panic, _Everyone_ was looking at them, That stupid doctor on the news was still speaking and Ralph had gone from looking just as freaked out as her to freaking looking _at_ her, and looking at her _far_ to perceptively.

 _Oh Gods, I just sort of asked Ralph to stay over tonight so we can talk about our relationship and now it's being analyzed by_ _ **Doctors**_ _on_ _ **TV**_ _before_ _ **we've**_ _even figured it out?!_

 _Oh and don't forget the fact that up until now you've managed to side step his questions about what bites mean to cats…_ another part of her mind noted.

 _Oh gods…_ She did **not** want to explain that to Ralph.

 _And boops too…_

 _Oh gods…_

 _Boop_.

The memory of him smiling and tapping her nose ran through her mind unhelpfully,

 _Aaaand now he's going to want to know about how feline's court and especially that little bit about how it's finalized…_

 _Oh Gods…_ She was screwed, _Royally_ Screwed,

 _Which thinking back on this morning might have sort of already happened…_

 _WHAT!? No, NO it couldn't have, '_ _ **We**_ _' couldn't have already, we're just starting to date, we can't_ _ **finish**_ _dating before we even started!_ She glanced back at Ralph… Which was a mistake. Not only was his look perceptive but it had a bit of that winter predatoriness that made little bits of excited lightning run through her.

 _He did mark you…_

Nadine froze for a second, staring at Ralph as her whole body flushed, then at his _too_ perceptive nose…

 ** _Nobody_** _Knows about that. That's a secret, a 'I'll ice you' if you tell anybody secret. I killed that secret, murdered it in the first degree and_ _ **Buried**_ _it under a mountain of deodorant._

Gods if anyone found out about that, if _Ralph_ found out about that… Well, if anyone found out she'd be going to prison for the rest of her life, locked up with a life time sentence and no chance of parole. That's how Megan liked to describe it anyway: A one way ticket to a two person cell with a white dress as the prison garb. Granted, it might be a very nice prison with the advantage of the best mammal she could imagine as her prison companion for life… But she wasn't ready to give in yet! She barely understood the crime she'd committed…

 _And that would be one felony charge of 'falling for that 'Wolf' ', plus one count of theft for his missing workout shirt and an assault charge for kissing him unconscious._ That annoying smug little Megan voice in her head said.

 _Not HELPING!_

 _Oh and a side misdemeanor of ogling said wolf for the last couple of years whenever you got the chance._

 _LIAR! I have NOT!_

 _Sure you haven't, just keep telling yourself that you've never eyed him or his tail up in the gym._

 _I AM NOT A_ _ **WOLF EYER**_ _! LIES! ALL OF IT!_

 _And this court adds a count of perjury for that blatant denial._

 _Shut it or I'll bury you too! I successfully hid his scent mark this morning, I can hide your body as well. You have no proof and I'll only turn myself in when I'm ready._

 _Proof? He also marked and claimed your bed and then you claimed his ass, literally._

 _… shit._ She'd left loose ends everywhere. _But Ralph doesn't know what that means!_

 _Well, not yet… but that doctor on the TV is probably going to explain it._

Ralph broke through Nadine's panicked thoughts then, taking a step closer to her and her breath hitched.

"You know, what happened this morning sure didn't seem like our normal sparing," he said, looking just like he did when he was undercover and closing the trap on their target.

"S-s-sure i-it w-was." She barely managed to get out as he slowly sauntered closer to her and she gulped.

"So you're saying the next time we spar I can kiss _you_ into submission and then leave a hickey on your rear?" he asked, a wolfish glint in his eyes.

"I, ah… wha- next time?" she stammered, flushing badly and trying to drag her eyes off of his. She couldn't think right while he was looking at her like that. It made her want to run (and also hope the he would chase her) but that would involve getting her brain to work. He was too close, too close to her… she could smell him now, his still slightly damp fur from their dunking earlier smelling like it had this morning after his shower. He was too close, looking at her with too much of that wild winter wolfishness and her mind was turning to complete mush.

 _What, I, ah… THINK! Do something, Say something!_

"… you'd, ah… have to win first." The words came out before she thought about what she was saying and Ralph's grin doubled in intensity.

"Really? So, if I win, I can kiss and nip you and boop your nose all I want, even though I apparently don't have a clue what it means?" he said smiling widely, so close to her now that they were almost touching and Nadine found she was having trouble breathing while her eyes were stuck on Ralph's intense gold ones. They glinted in a teasingly playful and happy manner but there was also a predatory wolf on the hunt in those gold depths. A wolf that seemed quite ready and willing to go hunting a tiger and she, stupidly, just couldn't seem to look away.

"I, ah, I, ah…" that used up most the remaining air in her lungs and before she thought about it she used the rest to squeak out the first coherent thing that came together in her head,

"You'll never beat me."

"Challenge accepted," Ralph said grinning hugely and then Nadine's world spun.

* * *

Part of Ralph recognized that he was starting to act rashly, part of him was still worried over the fact that his parents and his pact were going to no doubt see this news broadcast (and that part of him shuddered at the potential fallout of _that_ ) but the majority was focused on _his_ tiger. And he really couldn't think of her in any other way, not now, not after everything that had happened today, not with how she'd invited him over tonight. ' _They'_ might not be official yet but there wasn't ever going to be anyone else for him. He already knew that even if he had to wait for Nadine to tell him what he was pretty sure she felt.

Because if she hadn't said it, well… said it directly at least, she'd certainly seemed to be telling him in just about every other way; If the kissing and this morning, not to mention the love tunnel or her invitation to stay over tonight weren't clues there was the way she smelled too.

With most of her deodorizer from this morning washed away from their little swim after the boat had flipped he could finally smell her right. It was like taking dark sunglasses off in a dim room, just for his nose, and he could _smell_ her, not just her normal base scent like that of jungle flowers and warm sunny breezes, but he could smell the way her mood was effecting her scent, the softening of it when she was relaxed, how it sharpened when she was surprised and especially how it sweetened when they'd kissed or like now when she was staring at him with that flustered expression.

Ralph breathed in, letting it fill him, all the little intricacies of her scent, a scent that was stronger than it normally was too. Without the deodorant and without whatever she normally used for this time of year, there was no doubt now that she was in heat either. It had a different flavor from a she-wolves heat, but if anything he found it _more_ appealing. And mixed in, all among her scent where traces of his from when they'd dried each other off and she'd carried him. His scent. _His_ scent all over her almost like he'd scent marked her, claimed her as his mate. He could almost imagine he had with the way their scents had mingled, his and hers, _his_ tiger's.

He knew he was letting it get to him, that he was playing a dangerous game, that he wasn't thinking all that clearly, but she smelled _so_ nice, and she had asked him to come over tonight so they could actually talk about what this was between them, asked him over to _her_ den, her den which _he'd_ marked and she hadn't contested… well, unless throwing him onto that bed and kissing the hell out of him was a refute. And on top of all that was the slightly odd almost flustered behavior she'd been having all day with the nipping and booping and the hickey on his rear. He'd thought at first it might just be a more playful side of Nadine he'd never seen before, what with them sort of starting a relationship together, but he'd had a growing suspicion that it might be more than just that. A suspicion that was helped along by how cagy and embarrassed Nadine had been.

And if that meant _more_ than what he'd thought… well he wanted to howl out how he felt but Nadine had asked him to wait.

Even still, Ralph couldn't stop his tail from wagging or the need to be closer to her. She'd slipped up big time, what with what the doctor being interviewed was saying, and all but confirmed his suspicions and more. But he needed to know, needed to know just what this morning's tussle and her bite meant to her. Needed to know from _her_.

"You know," he started saying slowly, a massive giddy grin on his face as he moved toward her, "what happened this morning sure didn't seem like our normal sparing,"

Nadine's eyes got a little bit bigger and she stammered out a reply, "S-s-sure i-it w-was." And he grinned even more as his heart seemed to jump.

 _No, no it wasn't_.

They'd grown to know each other well over the years and despite her words he could easily tell what her real thoughts were; and judging by the way she gulped, she knew that he'd seen through her.

Ralph took another breath as he closed the distance between them, feeling almost drunk on her scent. It was a mess, that heavier than normal winter heat mixed with excitement and embarrassment and confusion and panic all jumbled in there chaotically. But amid all the other bits of her scent, with every step closer he took, was a steadily rising smell of her arousal.

"So you're saying the next time we spar I can kiss _you_ into submission and then leave a hickey on your rear?" he asked, now right up next to her and could smell the sudden _hard_ spike in her scent before she even flushed and stammered, "I, ah… wha- next time?" and her scent flared again making his heart rate spike as well, "… you'd, ah… have to win first." She was looking right at him, with those beautiful hazel gold flecked eyes of hers. Staring right back at him while her cheeks flushed pink, stared at him with a sort of terrified excited desperation, stared at him like it was a _challenge_.

She'd won this morning and she'd won again earlier when he'd asked after the purring incident on the bench, though he'd almost gotten her then…

Really, he didn't care if he won or not, but he couldn't back away from this. Plus he wanted to _know_ and every tussle he'd ever had with Nadine, whether physical or verbal was _always_ fun.

"Really?" he couldn't hold back face splitting grin as he asked, just to make sure, "So if I win, I can kiss and nip you and boop your nose all I want, even though I apparently don't have a clue what it means?"

He was so close to her, he could almost feel her rapid heartbeat as her scent went wild and she stammered out, "I, ah, I, ah," She was staring right back into his eyes before she finally stammered, "You'll never beat me."

Some part of him knew it probably wasn't the smart thing to do, be her scent was like a fog in his mind and he couldn't bring himself to stop from responding to her provocation.

"Challenge accepted," he said smiling gleefully back at her and moved. He was so close to Nadine that all he needed to do was slip his leg behind hers and twist while taking one of her paws in his and tugging. In one smooth motion Nadine was spinning to the side, off balance with her arms flailing as she fell. He moved in, his other arm wrapping around her back to catch her and he grunted as he stopped her heavier descending weight while her flailing arms latched themselves around the back of his neck.

Ralph grinned toothily, now holding her like she was some fainting damsel and looked down at his stunned tiger who meeped and blushed furiously.

"Well now, that wasn't so hard." He said teasingly and tapped her nose lightly with his free claw like an admonishment, "You usually put up a better fight Nadine!"

Nadine blinked going cross eyed for a second as she stared at his finger and a noise like something halfway between a growl and a purr came from her before her eyes snapped back to his now blazing with heat and fire.

"That was a dirty trick!" she practically roared, then leaned up and kissed him deeply.

Ralph's tail exploded into motion as her sudden kiss superseded every other thought in his mind, only for reality to come crashing back as he felt his leg kicked out from under him and he went tumbling to the ground. Nadine rolled him, coming up on top, but before she could stop and secure the position, he shifted using their momentum and rolled her instead.

"Un-Un!" Ralph said smirking like a fool from ontop of her from where they'd stopped, paws tangled up with each other's, "We aren't in _your_ house anymore!" and just to prove it, kissed her hard and fast like she had to him.

Nadine squirmed for a second and almost rolled him again before she gave in and was kissing him back, almost seeming to shift the fight to their kiss as there muzzles moved against one another. Ralph growled pleasurably into the kiss but finally pulled away even as Nadine tried to stop him.

He came up to ruckus cheers from those around them and the chattering of the TV news that was still running though he ignored it all as he looked down partner, who thankfully, was to flustered by that kiss to put up a real fight right at the moment, though her cheeks started flaming prettily again as she took in the noise around them.

Nadine leaned up just enough to bury her face in his chest like she wanted to hide from it all and muttered loudly, "You Cheater!"

"All's fair in love and war, Nadine." He growled happily and kissed her patterned stipes on the top of her head.

Her head thumped into his chest again and she muttered something about that word and their promise.

"What? It's just a quote." He smirked and kissed her ear, "So what about those nips and boops? I think I won this time."

" _Nooo_! _Not in Public_!" Nadine squeaked, her head snapping up to look at him… and almost booping her nose into his.

Ralph grinned, his tail wagging madly and he gave her nose a small lick.

Nadine meeped again, even her orange fur on her cheeks darking with her blush.

"So, care to tell me why not then?" he asked and impossibly she blushed _more._

" _NOOO!_ " she squeak-roared and buried her face back in his chest.

Ralph contemplated what to do then and mentally shrugged, before shifting and wrapping his arms around Nadine to hug her and let her cuddle up to him a bit more. He breathed in her comforting scent, not really caring about anything else for the moment because he had his tiger there with him and even if she wouldn't explain, wouldn't tell him, he was nearly certain she wasn't going to leave either.

And only then, as they were sitting there, Ralph half straddling Nadine's lap while she apparently tried to hide from the world in his shirt, did he start processing what was being said on the TV.

 _'…allows them to show off for each other; to display their strength, agility, and dominance, while the 'bite' is essentially a claiming statement… relationship will only ever progress to that of actual mates after the dominance display… essentially taken each other as life-mates…'_

Ralph's breath caught, and he mentally rewound what he'd heard to make sure he'd understood it right.

 _Bite_

 _Claim_

 _Mates_

The hitch must have caught Nadine's attention because she looked up from where she'd pressed her face into his shirt and looked at him almost shyly. Then she caught his expression and with a look of dawning horror glanced to where his attention was focused.

 _'-but to Officer Fangmeyer would have been akin to initiating a feline dominance…'_

The panicked screech Nadine let out was like nothing Ralph had ever heard before and his gaze was abruptly jerked toward her as her paws grabbed his muzzle and yanked it away from the TV.

" ** _RALPH_**! I said **_not_** to listen to **that**!" Her eyes were crazy wide and she looked like she was about to sling him over her shoulder and take off running.

"The bite this morning…" Ralph said sound almost drunk, "You bit my tail… then my-"

Her paw snapped his muzzle shut, stopping him from continuing as she waved wildly with her other paw.

" _NO_! That's not! I didn't! Your tail was just! I **_WON_** IT DAMNIT!" She ended up roaring that last bit, before turning to stare right at him growling dangerously, "I don't care what that stuck up Doctor says! It _wasn't_ like that unless I saw it was! I won the fight! I get to take my victory Spoils! My Home! My Den! MY RULES! And that means I can take your _fluffy_ tail as MY prize! NOTHING more!"

Nadine finished not sounding entirely rational and breathing rather hard.

Ralph glanced at the TV and then back at his tiger who looked like she was about ready to snap. His mind was still reeling from the implications… _She'd claimed him things morning? So by feline customs were they already mates?_ _ **Life**_ _-mates? …_ His heart felt like it might burst, He wanted to kiss her, mark her, tell her how much he loved her. But part of his mind was warning him that he might want to deal with his quasi-official _mate_ before she lost it and went savage… he just needed to think of a way to do that, think past the fog in his mind from the way she smelled and from the potential meaning of her actions, _Because after all, she didn't just bite my tail…_

"you also bit my rear…" _and left one hell of a bite hickey there… and wait, did I say that out loud?_

Nadine's muzzle was suddenly pressed right into his and she growled menacingly looking half savage, " _And THAT'S_ _ **Mine**_ _Too!_ "

Ralph blinked, taken aback a bit by the unmistakable threat in her voice if _anyone_ dared challenge her on that. His tail on the other hand new exactly how it wanted to respond to that and started to wag again. Ralph smiled looking right back into her eyes and simply said,

"Okay."

' _Damned cat doesn't even have the dignity to…'_

Nadine's head snapped back around to the TV which was showing an interview with goat, a goat whose voice Ralph recognized from this morning as her downstairs neighbor. There was a moment of complete silence in the food court as the TV interview continued, and Nadine stared at it and everyone else stared at her.

 _"I'M GONNA THRASH HIM_!" Nadine roared jumping to her feet with her fur spiked agitatedly as she sent Ralph sprawling, "Spreading Gossip about me on TV now!? I'll Shave his fur and paint his horns _Pink_!"

"Nadine! Calm down! It's not that bad!" Ralph said getting back to his feet while Nadine looked around wildly like she could find the goat right there, "See," he pointed to the TV, "even his wife is on our side,"

Nadine looked back to the TV and for a second looked like she'd been gut punched.

"Mrs. Horsley is even gossiping about us?!" she squealed grabbing her ears.

"More like defending us," he said waving a paw at the TV and Nadine looked at him like he was crazy.

"Ralph! **_We_** haven't even gotten to talk whatever **_Us_** is and _my Neighbors_ are gossiping about it! ON **_TV_**!

 _We…_

 _Us…_

Ralph really only heard the those parts of what she'd said and his tail went a little wild as a truly idiotic grin appeared on his face.

"Sooo, does that mean that there _is_ an official **us** now?"

That got an even crazier look than before which he took for something along the lines of 'Yes you Gigantic moronic _dope_!' and just made his tail wag more.

'… _That sassy little nightmare of a neighbor even calls them WolfEyer because…'_

Nadine had seemed about to say something else but her whiskers went all crooked as she heard that bit.

" **MEGAN**!" She roared loud enough that Ralph would have been surprised if the bobcat hadn't heard it from across the city.

* * *

Judy had frozen, utterly dumbstruck and completely horrified at the news broadcast. She didn't know how long she'd been like that, she didn't care, she just wished she could disappear. The day had been a series of up and downs, each one greater than the previous, and now… now after this latest debacle she just felt kind of… broken… like something in her had snapped.

 _Oh gods… everyone is going to think that we're together…_

She'd taken one look at Nick and didn't think she could again. Maybe not ever. She'd _never_ seen him lose his cool like that. Not when she'd hustled him and not even at the disaster of her first press conference. The way his fur and that oh so long tail of his had spiked like the worlds fluffiest pin cushion would have been cute… if it had been caused by the distress of seeing them errantly shown as a _couple_ on the carrot freaking news!

 _He's never going to want to be even seen with me again, not after that,_

 _How could something so spikey look so soft?_

 _If we're seen together people might think It's true!_

 _His tail like tripled in fluff, maybe quadrupled, how could anything be that fluffy looking?_

 _What if he doesn't want to be partners after this?_

 _Serendipity and I though his winter coat looked fluffy_ _ **before…**_

 _I don't want to lose him as my partner!_

 _But it's impossibly fluffy looking now, utterly ridiculously sinfully fluffy,_

 _We won't even be able to see each other outside of work or mammals will talk,_

 _Sooooooooooooo_ _ **Fluffy**_ _…_

 _No workouts together, No going to movies together, No eating together_

 _His Tails A fluffstrosity, a Fluffpocalypse, A Fluffing Fluffplosion_

 _He might not want to even be seen at my apartment,_

 _Gods his tail could cause a fluffdemic,_

 _That means no bad movie nights not-actually-cuddling cuddling with him on the couch,_

 _I only got to run my paws through it before! *Internal wail of despair*_

 _What if he doesn't want to even be friends after this?! *Internal wail of despair*_

Judy could feel her body start to shake as her mind seemed to implode.

 _I'll die of fluff deprivation! *Internal wail of despair*_

More shaking

 _I lost him as my friend once after the conference, I can't lose him again! *Internal wail of despair*_

"psst… **_Judy_**!"

She was jarred back to reality from the absolutely unreasoning mess her mind had turned into only to realize that she wasn't shaking but that Nick was shaking her shoulder.

"Yesh, don't turn all _veggie_ brained on me, Carrots." He pulled his arm back, keeping a measured space between them, and while Judy could still see he was agitated, his hackles still up, he was far more in control of himself than the fluffing mess he had been a minute ago.

"Okay, Carrots how do you want to handle _this_ ," Nick gestured quickly at the TV showing the news broadcast, before looking back at her, an almost pleading looking on his face, "If we want any control over it we need to figure this out quick and we both need to be reading from the same playbook."

 _He… He's still talking to me…_ Judy gaped at him for a second trying to get her head back in gear as part of her screamed, _Grab his fluffy tail before it escapes again!_

Judy quashed that stupid thought, before she acted on it and willed her brain to start working again.

"I- ah, say what?" she managed to get out, _um… okay not the most cogent statement but it's a st_ art. _Come on Judy Think! Get that fluffy out of your brain!_

Nick's tenuous hold on his cool seemed to slip a bit at her answer and his next words all came out in a rush.

"Okay, Judy. I know you probably wouldn't want anyone thinking that were dating… when where _not_ , because of course were _not_ , and your family will probably freak out and- never mind. Look my point is that the whole bit the news reporter about us isn't true, but if we start acting like _that_ ," Nick gestured over toward Ralph and Nadine just as the tiger yelped, "That's **_Different_**!" and started blushing furious while Ralph's jaw dropped gaping for a second before his tail started to wag, " _Everyone_ is going to think it's true! … when it's _obviously_ not! Anybody could see it's not! Hell we're probably only part of this because they were putting together a story about Nadine and Ralph for a valentine's day special because _of_ _course," he added sarcastically, "_ a interspecies relationship in the ZPD would make for a great juicy news bit and someone probably thought, 'hey, those two new officers are always around each other and _two_ interspecies couples is a juicer story than one!' It's a whole _big_ misunderstanding because we've just best friends and always hanging out with each other, right?"

Judy blink as the Nick's flood of words ended, and then something Skye had said earlier rolled through her mind,

 _-If you want to know who he's in love with then just watch to see what girl he spends most of his time around, with it being winter, he's going to want to be as close to her as possible-_

She quashed that stupid desperate fancy too and focused back on Nick as his forced hustler smile slipped a bit more and verged on breaking.

" _Right_ , Judy?" Nick sounded almost like he was pleading now, "Their story is just a _misunderstanding_ because were best friends. There's no reason to let that story stop that…"

Judy finally got her mind to start working properly and managed a reply.

"Misunderstanding… right." Nick's whole posture relaxed a just a bit, and she continued "of… of course. No reason to let that come between us."

Nick's hackles dropped and he seemed to almost sigh with relief as the panic behind his mask receded and his normal calm reasserted itself… more or less.

"Right," Nick said again, smiling more normally, "All we need to do is not let anyone see that they get to us.

 _Wait… does that mean it_ _ **does**_ _get to him?_

Her thought was cut off as a scuffle followed by the oddest sounding meep Judy had ever heard distracted her and she looked over to see Nadine draped across Ralph arm, paws around his neck like some princess in a play.

"Or act like _that_." Nick added with an actual snicker as Nadine, seeming extremely flustered, accused Ralph of cheating, then kissed him in a very un PG way before promptly kicked out his leg. All to the cheers and whistles of the crowd in the food court that seemed to have their attention on the two kissing/fighting mammals (and thankfully not on her or Nick) as the other two grappled, rolling on the ground.

"What are they doing?" Judy asked dumbfounded and blushing a bit.

"Probably having that Dominance fight or whatever Professor Pipe on the TV is talking about right now." Nick said pointing over his shoulder as he watched them too and Judy shifted an ear to listen to the report… and blushed a bit more.

"Oh! I ah… I didn't know they were, well that far along in their relationship…" she said trailing off a bit as Nick snickered again.

"Doesn't matter now what it is, because with everyone seeing _that_ after the news report that's exactly what mammals will think." He turned back to Judy, his expression growing serious, "Which is exactly my point Judy. Everyone is focused on them at the moment which gives us a moment to figure out what we want to do."

 _"_ Figure out what?" she repeated dumbly trying to drag her blushing gaze away from the two.

"Figure out how we want to handle the rumors. We could make a public fuss over it. Go on the air deny it and all. We could just ignore it and act like nothing happened, until all the hype dies down. But whatever we do, we need to make sure that it's not _that_ ," he gestured at their freidns again, "and that we are on the same page or everyone will think were just hiding something and the rumors will _never_ go away."

"If… if we made a big fuss over it, everyone still might just think we're trying to hide it…" Judy said thinking over what he said. Having Nick calmly laying out possible plans and ideas was helping her relax and think straight again, unlike her near complete freakout earlier. He was still here, still right next to her, still her friend, and this was such a normal routine for them from working cases and swapping ideas that it made her feel… comfortable, right, normal. Made her feel like nothing had changed and they were still best friends and partners… well police partners, not _that_ kind of partners. She gave her mind a mental shake to dislodge _those_ thoughts and returned to the issue at hand.

"Probably true, so we just ignore it all? Laugh at it whenever anyone askes like its ridiculous?" Nick said with a grin and a small chuckle.

"Yep, That's exactly what we'll do Slick," she said trying to force some energy and cheer into her voice, and gave a forced laugh, "Because really, _us_ , a bunny and a fox? What are the chances of that? It would be like… like…" She waved her paw around desperately, as her mind caught up with her mouth and she wished she'd thought a little more before she'd spoken or better yet just not said anything at all.

 _Because I'd give anything to have that chance…_ she thought, her cheer evaporating.

"Like…" her waving paw pointed at where Nadine and Ralph where, now apparently done with their tussle, and staring at the TV in shock.

 _Like a wolf and a tiger falling in love…_

Judy blushed and quickly looked away from Nick right as there was a panicked shout From Nadine.

* * *

"Hopps and Wilde seem to be taking this far better than I'd have expected," Jack said reaching over for some of the peanuts from the bag Skye was now holding, "on the other hand I think Fangmeyer is losing it."

"I'M GONNA CURL THAT CATS WHISKERS!"

"I actually think she's taking it pretty well," Skye said with slight smile as she teasingly moved the bag just out of his reach.

"Nadine come on! Calm down! You can't do that!"

"Oh Hell YES I can! I'll Borrow Mrs. Hornsly's curling iron!"

Jack reached from a different angle only for the bag to move at the last second, and frowned contemplating the teasing little smile on Skye's muzzle and how he might steal his peanuts back from the vixen even as he replied, "Well, _you_ would think that wouldn't you, I mean you only _blew up_ Doctor Meow's island when you got upset during that first case of ours." Jack leaned in close to her and made a grab for the peanuts... and missed.

"I didn't blow it up!" Skye huffed indignantly, and Jack was about to respond when the feeling of her paw sneaking around his back and to grab his tail startled him, "The _volcano_ did that," she continued huffily, though Jack could see the small smirk she was trying to hold back.

There was a light pinch and Jack gave an involuntary hop, a hop that sent him right into her side, "I just might have, oh, helped the volcano a little bit." She said her tail snuggly wrapping around him while she popped a few more peanuts in her mouth, "And Doctor Meow was totally insane anyway, he wasn't even a _cat_! And seriously, who builds a secret 'evil overlord' base buried in the heart of a little volcanic island?"

"Judy! Nick! A little help here? Tell her I'm right!" Ralph shouted, his arms wrapped around Nadine's waist ineffectually as she dragged him with her toward the street.

"Oh good Idea! Judy your friends with Fru Fru right? Does she need a new rug? Because I'm Going To Shave Her Tail When I'm Done With Her Whiskers!"

Jack tried not to fidget or blush as Skye's paw kept playing with his tail and contemplated his position, practically wrapped up by Skye's tail and snuggled into her side while her paw teased him.

 _Damnit, she just suckered me into a fluffy trap and with my own peanuts too._

He thought about that for just a bit more and amended that last thought.

 _… again._

"Nadine, I… ah, think Ralph's right. Doing that won't help!" Judy said joining in on the soap opera only to get a large dose of tiger death glare which didn't seem to faze the bunny at all.

"Ralph! Just _kiss_ her again!" Nick pipped up and got an even harsher glare that should have stripped his fur from his body.

"You stay out of this ' _WILDEHOPPS'_! I'm going too- mhhhphh…", Ralph had given up trying to hold her back, wrap his arms around her neck instead of her waist and pulled her head down enough to take Nick's advice and kiss her solidly.

"Ohh! One point for Nick but the tiger scores a double." Skye chortled as the bunny squeaked and looked away from the fox while his tail puffed again and he started coughing.

"And that there is another lesson in why it's never a good idea to poke your nose into another couples affair, particularly when the female is angry and in heat." Jack snicker, then meeped as his tail was pinched.

"I hope that wasn't directed at me, because Doctor Meow got _exactly_ what he deserved." Sky said sniffing slightly and then added, "Plus it's not like we or Bogo aren't doing that with those two." She nodded toward the flustered 'wildehopps', "so what does that say about us?"

"Well first we're not sticking our noses in their business, we're poking it with a ten foot stick to see if they'll finally explode like that," he gestured to the tigress with the wolf dangling from her neck right as she managed to break free of the kiss and snarl, "Oh NO! Don't think you can distract me like that! Not this time- mhhmumhhh…"

"plus," Jack continued, "Hopps is a bunny, they don't go into heat."

Skye snorted, "You should know better Jack, being a hare and all. Bunnies don't go into heat because there _always_ in heat. And if Karma has anything to say about us or this conspiracy messing around with them, then you can be sure she'll get her revenge."

This time it was Jack's turn to snort, "And if Karma has anything to say about you using that stereotype about us Lapines then you'll certainly be in for it as well." and he pinched her tail in turn and made another grab for the peanuts even getting a paw on the bag… before Skye managed to yank it away.

Skye smirked down at him even as a light blush shown through her light fur, "Well I kind of hope I'm 'in for it' _Jack_ ," she tweaked his tail, a bit of rumble in her voice, "But I've got quite a lot of first hand evidence that lapine's are always in heat anyway. Wouldn't you say _Mr_. ' _humper_."

"It was _Thumper_ not _humper_ ," Jack said indignantly working hard to not let a blush show on his face. Then groaned at the futility of trying to hide his reaction to her as Skye leaned in, her nose sniffing, and a very pleased smile spreading across her face.

"You should listen to your own advice Mr. ' _Humper_ , and just agree with the female when she's in heat."

There was the sound of dishes clattering as the tiger stumbled and bumped a table before breaking free of the kiss again.

"-not g-going to _stop…_ m-me!" Nadine growled with savage intent, her breathing rather heavy now, "I'm… I'm…"

Wolford didn't kiss her again, instead he pulled himself up, wrapping his legs around her waist so he could look straight down, directly into her half savage eyes. Then in a deliberate motion, booped his nose against hers.

The tiger stopped dead, eyes locked with the wolfs, and there was a collective intake of breath from the on-watchers, while the news report continued in the background of the sudden silence.

' _Well that seems to be quite the fairy tale romance story.'_ The ZNN's feline anchor said, _'Quiet fitting for Valentine's day wouldn't you think?'_

Then Fangmeyer _ROARED_ , her eyes going fully savage and she was mauling Wolford.

Well, Jack thought 'mauling' might not have been _exactly_ the right word for what she was doing but it was close enough considering the ferocious way she was kissing him, nipping at his neck, and putting holes in his shirt with her claws as she pulled him closer. The very air seemed to nearly vibrate from the growling purr she was emanating.

"Well," Jack said a bit shocked and taken aback, among other things, by the sudden… mauling? attack? Savaging?, "I think your right Skye, Hell your always right, I really should just listen to whatever a female in heat says." She snickered and kissed him between the ears.

"Nadine?! Oh gods, Nadine-mhhhphmh *pant*," the tiger had the wolf pinned now, up against the side of one of the food stalls as he seemed to struggle under her assault; his tail was going berserk in fits and starts as he seemed to try resisting the kisses and nips, "Nadine! public, can't! Not here! Balto help me! *groan*" He looked like he was struggling not to lose it now too, panting between breaths, and angled his muzzle up in an effort keep his mouth out of kissing range.

The tiger though simply shifted her attack, purring even deeper as she rubbed her head and ears under his uplifted chin and along his muzzle, then did it again, arching with a feline liquidity as she rubbed her head against him with her eyes half lidded as a purely primal purr emanated from her.

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

" _Oh gods_ … * ** _groan_** _*…_ "

Jack watched in a sort of fascinated aroused horror unable to look away and now _supremely_ aware of his mate leaning against him, her tail wrapped around him as her paw…

A bolt lightning seemed to run through him as she lightly tugged on his tail and simultaneously nipped the base of his ear.

"You usually don't agree so fast. Why, you aren't worried that I might go savage on you too are you?" she tweaked his tail again and Jack cursed his lapine nature, because true to form there was part of him that wished she _would_ go savage on him like that with a _rock_ hard certainty.

"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" he accused and she didn't even bother hiding her grinning smile.

She nuzzled his head for a second and he felt his fur flutter as she breather through her nose before saying playfully, "I do like the smell of steamed _wabbit_ , I wonder just how much teasing you can take before _you_ finally snap and go savage on _me_."

" _Nadiiiiiiiiiine!_ " Wolford called out desperately in a strangled panting shout, that cut off Jack's automatic retort to Skye's teasing pet name for him.

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

 _Hare, I'm a hare darnit! And wow, that's one hell of a purr and Skye needs to stop moving her tail against me like that!_ Jack's usually steady heart rate doubled, then doubled again as Skye started toying with his ear like she always did when she intended to see just how riled up she could get him, _Oh gods, watching this is putting her in one of_ _ **those**_ _moods…_ The rest of the afternoon was going to be hell, a never ending water drip torture by loving teases. And he still had the concert to get through before he could drag her back home to their bedroom, _dancing with Skye when she's like this? She's going to make that the_ _ **hardest**_ _most trying experience of my life…_

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

 _"Nadine! stop! We're in a- ohhh gods."_

He could already feel his foot starting to thump away with his impatient. And he could _feel_ Skye's grin as she just nuzzled him again.

Jack needed a distraction and quick, a distraction from Skye's teasing, from that tiger's purring because there was no damned way just freaking _purring_ and _rubbing_ could, _should_ , possibly be _that_ erotic and now he could feel Skye rumbling low in her chest…

 _Quick damnit because if you don't think of something else right freaking_ _ **now**_ _, you are going to be one blue cooked wabbit by tonight!_

 _I mean Hare damnit!_

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

Jack tore his eyes away, though his excellent hearing for once was completely betraying him.

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

 _"Nadine!_ w… w… we *pant*"

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

His eyes landed on the peanut bag in Skye's paw and with a strained grin at the chance to win one of her little games while Skye tortured him for the rest of the afternoon, he grabbed for it… and she moved it out of reach just in the nick of time with a snicker.

"Really Skye? You're just going to steal my peanuts like that?" he said in frustrated exasperation.

"But…" Skye started giggling in a ridiculously cute way, before saying with a pout, "I _like_ holding your nuts."

 ** _*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*_**

 _" *moan* *whimper* Nadiiiiine!"_

Forget the bedroom or even the couch, as soon as they made it through the front door…

He could already feel his foot starting to thump away with his impatient need. And he could _feel_ Skye's grin as she nuzzled him again. _Just need to make it home tonight… get through the door… the foyer wall will do, hell the_ _ **door**_ _will do…_

There were two wolf howls from another part of the park, rising and falling, twining together,

 ** _*PURRRRRRRRRRRRR*_**

 ** _*AWwwwoooooOOOOOOOOOO*_** Wolford let out a primal unrestrained howl like the sound of desperate longing and need made manifest.

And like match being thrown into gas, the food court erupted in howls as every canid in the vicinity picked up the howl, Wolford the loudest among them all.

* * *

Bogo couldn't remember the last time his spirits had been this high. He was on his way to a gazelle concert, his wife was here beside him happy as could be, the savages we're minding his two little chaos magnets and best of all, he was out of that absolutely horribly _ridiculous_ costume.

Things _finally_ seemed like they might be turning around and going his way. He thought he might actually be… smiling? Huh, he couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled without forcing the expression. He looked down at his hoof held in Bess's as they walked and listened to the happy little ditty she was humming absentminedly and couldn't help the warm fuzzy feeling that built up inside. Why, he even felt like being a little naughty, maybe _very_ naughty. Bogo smiled; He couldn't remember the last time he'd loosened up a bit either.

 ** _Do_** _it!_ whispered a little voice in his mind, _You know you want too!_

 _Don't! That's against the ZPD code of conduct behavioral guide lines!_ Said another voice countering the first.

 _Pfftt, loosen up already, you're not even on the clock right now!_ That first little voice had a point, but it sounded a little too much like Wilde was sitting on his shoulder whispering devilish ideas in his ear for his comfort.

 _Not being on the clock doesn't mean you should still follow all the rules!_ And now that other side sounded too much like that over-enthusiastic, always on duty, bunny. Sheesh even _he_ needed a break from the police force every once in a while, but he was pretty sure she'd live at the precinct if she could.

 _You mean behave like a stuck up old buffalo butt! Don't listen to that fluffed up little angle Bogo!_ Said the devil fox's voice as it seemed to take form in his imagination and sit on Bogo's shoulder before making faces at the little angel bunny that appeared on his other.

 _Hey that was uncalled for!_ The little haloed bunny said huffily and the harp she was carrying poofed into the ZPD handbook which she brandished at him, _Name calling is against rule 37 of the ZPD-_

 _Seriously? You're going to quote the rules at me?_ the little horned devil (he really didn't look all that different from the actually fox, what with his already red fur) poked the book with his devil fork and yanked it out of her paws, _No wonder mammals think you're a stiff old fart if you if all you ever do is follow these!_

 _He is not! And give that back that's ZPD property! The bunny shouted in indignation though she seemed more concerned about the book._

 _Pffttt, imaginary ZPD property,_ the devil fox said and the book in his paw went up in a puff of fire and smoke while the angel bunny squealed in horror, _your better without that anyway, besides rule 1 was 'No fun allowed'._

 _It was not! It was to always look out for the wellbeing of the city's citizenry first!_ The little white robbed bunny on his shoulder glared at the devil fox on his other, her foot starting to thump away rapidly.

The devil horned Wilde on his shoulder gave the angel Hopps one of his oh so annoying cock sure grins as he leaned casually against Bogo's neck, _And isn't that exactly what I'm doing? Looking out of his wellbeing?_ _ **All**_ _work and_ _ **no**_ _play makes Bogo grumpy old fart. Shesh, it would probably make him less grumpy if_ _ **you**_ _didn't work so hard and took some time off once in a while so he could have a break. Why I'd even_ _ **love**_ _to help you put your ears down for a bit._ The fox gave the bunny a sly wink and she blushed and stammered and barely caught her halo before it fell out of place.

 _I… I... I do h-have fun! A-And so does Bogo! Why he even cracks jokes during the morning briefings!_ The angel bunny said, red cheeked and putting her halo back in place though it was a bit crooked now.

 _Oh sure, he really had had everyone going with 'lets acknowledge the elephant in the room' joke,_ the devil fox rolled his eyes and Bogo couldn't help muttering to himself. He'd thought that had been a rather clever. Bess had even helped him practice his delivery of that joke the night before and said she thought it was funny and cute.

 _You just can't appreciate a good joke!_ The Bunny said angrily, her ears snapping up… and whacking her halo so that it slumped forward all askew and blocker her vision.

 _No,_ the devil fox snickered as he reached over and stole the halo from the distracted angel bunny, then twirled it on his finger while she squawked angrily and tried to grab it back, _I just have an actually sense of humor and fun, which is why he should_ _ **do**_ _it!_

The white robed bunny gave an embarrassed squeak as she tried and failed to get her halo back, _But in public?! Have you no decency?! What would the anyone from the precinct say if someone saw?!_

 _And where's the fun in decency?_ Bogo's imaginary devil version of Wilde said with another snicker as he flicked the Bunny's tail as she grabbed for the halo again. Then he winked at Bogo, _You_ _ **know**_ _you want to do it!_ Bogo was starting to become annoyed at his imagination now, first because it was making Wilde's antics seem appealing and second because _why the hell do I have an imaginary bunny and fox in my thoughts?!_

 _No! Don't listen to him Chief!_ the imaginary Hopps yelled now blushing furiously, _Give that back Nick! Or Else! Chief, ignore him! He's trying to hustle you!_

The devil fox only snickered at the bunny, _Or else what cutey buns?_ Before he looked back at Bogo, _You know you want to Buffalo Butt! Or is it Mr. Tush from stud magazine now? Because from what I heard all the cows have been ogling_ _ **your**_ _Buns! You can't let her get away with that without getting back at her, now can you?_ Bogo frowned, nearly grinding his teeth at the Buffalo Butt bit, but the damned fox had a point, Bess had been poking fun at his rear and some payback was in order.

 _NOO!_ The flustered angel bunny cried tackling the fox to his shoulder, _Chief Don't do it! you can't do_ _ **that**_ _! Not in_ _ **Public**_ _! Anything but_ _ **THAT**_ _! Stop trying to corrupt the Chief Nick!_

 _Just give in Bogo!_ The fox cackled rolling around on his shoulder with the bunny until they stopped with the frazzled little angle pinning the devil, the halo now nowhere to be seen, _Come, give yourself to the Wilde side Bogo!_ Devil Nick said, cackling in a starwars voice, _Muhahaha! Come! Join me and the Wilde Side of the Force! It is the only way if you ever want any fun! Muhahaha!_

 _Shut Up Nick! Shut UP!_ The Bunny shouted desperately,

 _Make me._ The fox smirked up at her and after a flustered sputtering second she kissed him… Much to Bogo's utter bewilderment and vast annoyance at the insanity of his thoughts.

 _Don't Do It Chief!_ The now not so angelic looking angle Hopps said from atop the fox after breaking the kiss. _It's not proper!_

 _Do It! and I'll make us go away!_ The devil Nick countered and then kissed the Bunny back.

Well that made his choice easy. Hell, Bogo's do the most unspeakably naughty thing he could if it would simply make those insane imaginings go away. And with a cackling laugh of, _Victory!,_ and a cry of, _NOOOOmmhphh…_ they finally, thank the gods, disappeared.

Bogo, still frowning, glanced over at his wife alongside him, holding his hoof as they walked. She thankfully hadn't seemed to notice his insane mental debate though and he had to work to hide a sudden very un-Chief like grin of gleeful anticipation.

' _unspeakably naughty' huh? Well… Bess will never see it coming. It kind of feels good to be wilde… UGH!_ Bogo mentally slapped himself for that thought, _I mean it feels good to let lose a bit._

Decision made, Bogo nodded his head and executed his oh so evil plan.

First he made sure not to look over at Bess and give away that he was planning anything (and in doing so, missed the excited grin that showed on her face as she watched him out of the corner of her eye).

Then, with extreme care, so as to not arouse suspicion, Bogo shifted closer and closer to her as they walked. Only once he was in the perfect position and still looking resolutely ahead like he was up to absolutely nothing at all, did he flick his tail over, as if flicking a fly, and swatted Bess's rump.

Bogo almost giggle aloud as Bess gave a small startled hop and 'Oh!'

 _Ogle my tush will you? Well then take that! And you can be sure that I'll be doing some ogling of_ _ **that**_ _tush at the concert too!_

"Did _you_ just flick _my_ rear dear?" Bess said in an accusatory almost gleeful way and Bogo had to work hard not to giggle like a teenager.

" *giggle* *Ehem* I have absolutely _no_ idea what you're talking about." He said in a perfectly controlled voice… and blushed.

"Well then…" Bess said grinning, and Bogo jumped, blushing even more as her tail swatted his rump, "I'd better stick _really_ close to you since there are apparently some very _rude_ mammals around." And she sidled up close to him leaning her head on his shoulder.

 _Best plan ever._ Bogo thought grinning a bit, _and to think that fortuneteller was spouting off prophecies of Doom and such, Ha! Even if they've been a bit bumpy, things are coming together, We even have the ZBI's best team working on-_

Bogo's ear flicked as they walked past one of the park security mammals on the goofy little two wheel Segway things he'd absolutely vetoed from his department as the mammals walkie-talkie went off.

' _Control theirs some sort of disturbance over by the east side Food Court-'_ a terrific roar interrupted him emanating from the walkie-talkie, ' _Holy Crap, Control I think we have a 10-91! Savage Mammal, Tiger Going Sav- Oh._ _ **my.**_ _Gods-_ ' there was a clattering sound like the walkie-talkie had been dropped, then nothing but static.

'Unit 7? Unit 7? What's your status? Update! All available security units near the east food court-'

"Honey, are you alright?" Bess asked, her usual cheer gone from her voice replaced by seriousness.

Bogo took a second to reorder his mind,

 _Savage Mammal? Somebody wouldn't be stupid enough to try continuing Bellwether's idiotic plan would they?_

"Bess, did you hear that?" he asked and she nodded her head, "I'm sorry dear, I think I need to go see what's happening. This could be important," he said regret in his voice.

"Nothing to be sorry about!" Bess said her face full of determination, "It's your job to keep the city safe and you do a damn fine job of it!" Bogo could have kissed her then, except she took his hoof and started hurrying after the security bear as he zipped his Segway around, heading in the other direction. "Come on dear! You have your job to do!"

"Bess!" Bogo said a bit taken aback as he regained his footing, now running behind her as she led him, "You can't come too!"

"Oh yes I can! You might have to work on Valentine's day, but as soon as your done, your time is mine! Now hurry up so we can finish dealing with whatever this is!" She huffed as she ran.

"Bess they said it was a 10-91! You could get hurt!" Bogo replied between breaths as he spirted to keep up with his wife. She'd always been more of a runner while his strength was well… strength, then again watching her behind as she ran in front of him was _so_ bad either.

"Not with you there, I can't!" She said gleefully and picked up the pace a bit more.

Bogo's response was cut off as two intertwined howls erupted close by followed by a heart rending response from somewhere ahead of them before it sounded like nearly every wolf in the park picked up the howl.

* * *

Chapter In Page Art!

(Ya, ya, this is Fanfiction DOT net, so You'll just have to go look it up, but its worth it!)

 **ocerydia DOT deviantart DOT com /art/The-Conspiracy-Bogo-devil-Nick-and-angel-Judy-695401024**

Courtesy of OceRydia

Special Thanks for completeing this on a super tight schedule, You Rock Oce!

* * *

A/N

 **THE END... NOT!**

...

This turns out to be only Part 1 of the final 3 Chapters - Check back this weekend for more

...

Operations Clock: 6.75 hours

...

Secret Squirrel Division Report:

MinscLovesBoo - Raided for ideas, again, and the squirrels apparently got drunk while over there this time ( #HoldMyBeer ). They returned and somehow started a howl even though i have no idea how exactly that came about in this story (checks orginial plot) Nope was not there before.

Uomo - You know what you did, STOP GIVING THOSE SQUIRRELS RANDOM IDEAS

...

Once more unto the breach, dear Bess, once more;

Or close the wall up with our Savaged dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a mammal

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war Howls in our ears,

Beware the intimate action of the tiger, for fear her wrath;

Stiffen thy sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Fight through thy visage, a fluffy hell,

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge,

Cry 'Gods for Duty, Zootopia, and KISS ALREADY YOU DAMNED BUNNY AND FOX!'

.

-From Wolfspear's: Bogo the V, Act III, Scene I


	14. Chapter 14 - The Great Escape

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: +6.75 hours

...

Disclaimer:

Petty officer reaches across the life raft and pats the captain's shoulder.

"Sir, it had to be done."

"But my ship!"

"We had no choice sir!'

"But _my_ Ship!"

"Sir, we couldn't figure out how to stop that Nuke and that Beeping Beeping Beeping! Always getting closer and closer together like it might happen but not quite happening even though it should have happened and you're ripping your hair out because even if it's the FLUFFING End you just want it to GO AHEAD AND FREAKING HAPPEN ALREADY! Um… sorry sir, I was losing it a bit again, but that beeping from them bomb was driving everyone nuts. Half the crew went savage. We shouldn't have ever tried stealing all those ideas for it from Disney in the first place. It was bound to go horribly chaotically wrong especially with he who shall not be named… may he rest in pieces that evil little coffee addicted bastered with his Beep… Beep… Beep.. -"

"But. _My._ SHIP! *Sob*"

"Sir we couldn't risk it, not after the grinch got loose again. We had to scuttle the ship and the bomb."

*Sob*

"Don't worry sir another one of our ships will be along shortly to pick us up and then we can go along with plan J."

*More sobs*

"It's alright sir, I know that this has been a long wait but see, there's our ride right there."

"But it's not _my_ ship."

"Well sir, maybe that captain will let you hold the wheel for a bit, just for old times sake."

*rope ladder splashes down near them and they climb up onto the new ship*

"Looks like you all had a hard time, why don't you all come over and have some coffee and tell us what went wrong. We need to get this operation back on track before the conspiracy is blown. We only have one more chance after this."

"Right Captain, *sob* Thank you."

"Seaman. Seaman! Hurry up and bring that coffee over to these survivors"

*Seaman hustles over with tray of coffee*

" *sob* You have no idea how good it is to see coffee again, We were without any for weeks, even before the disaster all because of… of…"

*old captain stares at the seaman with the coffee tray, who instead of serving it is drinking it.*

"YOU! YOU GRINCHY BASTARD! HOW DID YOU-"

*Grinch Smirks Evilly*

"How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure."

*pulls out a remote and clicks a button*

Beep… … Beep….

* * *

Chapter 14 In Page Art!

Courtesy of StarFang's Secrets

(YES this FanFiction DOT net so you have to go look it up yourself, but it is SO WORTH IT!)

CHECK IT OUT AT:  
starfangssecret DOT deviantart DOT com /art/The-Great-Escape-702931803

(Can also be found by googling 'StarfangsSecrets' and 'Deviantart' and looking in her Deviant Art Gallery for the picture called 'The Great Escape')

* * *

Chapter 14 – The Great Escape

 **( A Few Minutes Previously… )**

 _Don't freak out, Don't freak out, just keep grinning and talking,_ Nick thought to himself frantically as he _totally_ freaked out. Well, freaked out internally at least; on the outside he managed to maintain his normal calm collected, 'still in control of the hustle' expression. Mostly. It was maybe a little less 'in control' than he'd wished and more of the 'plan's gone to hell in a handbasket so smile and talk fast or Mr. Big is going to turn _your_ butt into a rug' expression.

In that case, though, he'd only been in danger of getting iced. Right now, he was afraid that the stupid gossip stories the news was spouting might damage his friendship with the most important mammal in his life, and that seemed _sooo_ much worse.

Luckily though, Judy seemed to be taking to the plan he'd proposed with gusto, and Nick thanked his quick wit and silver tongue for that little bit of on the fly hustling. For a few moments, Judy had looked like she'd been about to freak out too as she'd stared, open-mouthed, at the TV news broadcasters. But she'd been as resilient as always, snapping out of it and jumping fully on board the plan. Maybe more on board with it than he'd really wished.

"Because really, _us_ , a bunny and a fox?" Judy said with a small shaky smile, seemingly to try and lighten the tension that had suddenly appeared between them. But the words knifed through Nick, hot and painful and his grin froze on his face. It was the very idea at the base of the plan he'd proposed, but it was also the source of his deepest darkest fears he'd been fighting with for the last year.

 _Because really, us, a bunny and a fox..._ the words seemed to repeat in his mind, and it felt like his heart was being crushed. He loved Judy, had fallen for her in a way that he knew would never happen with anyone else; but he was a fox, a stupid fox in love with a bunny… it was a doomed love, a love that he'd tried to keep subdued because it hurt, hurt to fully accept, hurt because really, a bunny and a fox?

As good of friends as they were, he wasn't sure if she'd ever come to love him as anything more than a friend… because simply put, he was a fox and she was a bunny. The dark thoughts of his fears seemed to almost consume Nick as he stood there, a rictus holding his grin on his face as Judy continued,

"What are the chances of that?" she said with a forced laugh, waving her paw, her voice gaining a note of alarm and uncertainty, "It would be like… like…" Judy trailed off as she looked over to the side where she'd been gesticulating and Nick followed her gaze to see Nadine and Wolford. "...like…" Judy's voice cracked as if the sight of the wolf and the tiger amidst their very public relationship crises had just demolished her argument with a wrecking ball. She turned back looking a little wide eyed, and for the briefest moment her eyes caught his.

Nick's breath had already stopped a moment earlier but his heart, clouded by an onslaught of painful thoughts and fears, came to a screeching halt, tripping head over heal in an ungainly stumble. For that brief moment in time, behind her lavender eyes, behind the look of panic he thought he saw a look of almost anguished… longing?

Then Judy quickly looked away and he caught just a hint of a blush on her cheeks right as the food court went silent for a moment. Silent except for the ZNN interview with Nadine's neighbors, and the calm was broken by Fangmeyer's screeching roar.

" **MEGAN**!"

 _Okay, now might be a good time to freak out_ , Nick thought and took the moment to gasp in a few breaths as his heart started pounding at a hundred miles an hour. His thoughts seemed to be imploding while his emotions tried to explode.

 _Did she just… look at me… does she actually… maybe there's a chance…_

 _Have to be imagining things… seeing what you want to see… impossible…_

 _She blushed! she_ _ **blushed**_ _!_

 _Blushed because we've got front row seats to Ralph and Nadine's live soap opera!_

 _You don't think that!_

 _Think that?! I don't know what to think! Why should I think anything because she glanced at me!_

 _She didn't just glance at you, she_ _ **looked**_ _at you!_

 _And now she's looking_ _ **away**_ _from me!_

 _And_ _ **now**_ _she's looking back at you._

Nick, nearly hyperventilating, froze as Judy glanced over at him again.

"Nick, I ah…" she started to say before her blush deepened and she glanced back toward where Wolford was trying to stop Fangmeyer, with little success, as she started angrily storming out of the food court. "Do you think we should help?" She finally asked, sounding rather desperate to change the conversation.

"Uhhh…." Nick managed to say, his voice high, "help who?" he tried desperately to refocus his thoughts.

 _Oh right, tiger and wolf making a scene…_

"Help Nadine track down the ZNN interviewees or help Ralph stop her?" Nick asked, his voice almost back to its normal nonchalance, though his thoughts were still a mess.

 _Conversation shift. That was a major conversation shift. Hustling 101, shift conversation when things get too close to the mark._

 _Judy's not a hustler, she's shifting the conversation because she's a good hearted mammal that has an ingrained need to help others! You know that! That's part of why You like her._

The exasperated, " _Niccckkkk!_ " he got in response to is flippant half thought question was so purely Judy, that it had him grinning for real, even as distracted as he was by his thoughts.

 _Not a hustler?!_ _ **Not**_ _a hustler?! Do you remember how you got dragged into the Nighthowler case when you met her?_ _ **The Tax Forms?!**_ _She's hustled you before, she'll hustle you again, she's already hustling you into loving her without even trying! How is that bunny_ _ **Not**_ _a hustler?_

 _But… but… That doesn't mean that was a sign that she's interested in me!_

"Personally," Nick added to Judy, his mouth still running mostly on autopilot as he leaned over and whispered to her behind his paw, "I'm kind of in favor of helping Nadine if her revenge against her friends involves getting at whoever is behind this news report, too." He glanced at the TV and winced as he saw that the broadcast was still going, though, thank the gods, everyone's attention including Judy's was quite firmly on Ralph and Nadine. The news report unfortunately, only made his thoughts shift back to that look from before.

 _But it_ _ **could**_ _be. It_ _ **might**_ _be. You should make another move, stay close to her and given her another sign you like her. Maybe brush against her with your tail again._

 _Are you crazy?! After this news report everyone is going to be watching us! I thought the plan was_ _ **not**_ _to act like we're courting each other!_

 _Sure, but if there's even a chance she might like you, you need to show her your interested! You_ _ **do**_ _want her to ask you out, right?_ _ **RIGHT?**_

"Nick!" This time, Judy's exasperation was accompanied by a whack to his arm, and she gave him a 'be serious for a minute' stare, before pointing over to where two park security guards were approaching the commotion on segways. "We might want to do something before we all get in trouble and spend the concert in the park's lockup!"

"Oh, ah, right. That would be bad." Nick said, his mind finally starting to focus again. Well, most of it…

 _Quickly, she's right next to you, just ease your tail around her legs, nice and subtle…_

"Judy! Nick!" Ralph shouted over to them, sounding a bit desperate as he clung onto Nadine while the tigress inexorably plowed forward toward the street like a vengeful titan. "A little help here?! Tell her I'm right!"

"Oh good Idea!" Nadine said, looking at them with a truly malevolent grin. "Judy, your friends with Fru Fru, right? Does she need a new rug? Because I'm Going To Shave Her Tail When I'm Done With Her Whiskers!" Nadine roared before continuing, Ralph still futilely trying to hold her back.

"Right, well," Nick said quietly before he swallowed hard, and only then noticing that his tail had protectively curled around Judy. "You, ah, want first crack at calming the _really_ ticked off tiger?"

Judy didn't seem nearly as intimidated by the _much_ larger and _very_ angry predator, and spoke up, "Nadine, I… ah, think Ralph's right." She started off slowly in a reasonable, helpful sort of tone. "Doing that won't help."

The withering glare Nadine shot toward her would have impressed even Bogo. But Judy weathered it well and looked like she was about to try again when Nick had a delightfully evil little idea about how to stop the tiger and shouted back toward Wolford.

"Ralph! Just _kiss_ her again!"

That actually stopped Nadine for a full second as she turned the full weight of her very impressive _Die Right Now_ glare on him while he smirked.

"You stay out of this ' _WILDEHOPPS'_!" Nadine snarled, emphasizing that last bit, and Nick's smirk quite literally shattered as his whole body bristled in panic. Judy for her part, only made a startled choked squeaking sound accompanied by an audible snap as her ears shot up in alarm.

"I- we aren't- that's not!" Nick started to say as all the mammals watching, turned to look at them and the words seemed to stick in his throat. He glanced down at Judy as Wolford thankfully took his advice and distracted Nadine before she could make things worse, though he wasn't sure how that might be possible,

 _Wildehopps?!_ _ **Wildehopps**_ _?! They have a freaking_ _ **nickname**_ _for us?!_

Panicking, Nick looked down at Judy just as she looked up at him and he became acutely aware of just how close they were. She was right up against his side, so close that his tail had wrapped all the way around her legs, its tip settling on her toes. Judy seemed to realize it at the same moment because her eyes got even larger than they already were and she quickly looked away, blushing badly now as Nick took a hasty step back as his tail puffed in alarm and worry.

"Nick?! I thought you were supposed to be _good_ at smooth talking." Judy squeaked at him, sounding exceedingly embarrassed even before she looked around at their audience. She let out a short terrified 'meep!' before backing up to him and sounding distinctly nervous now too. "N-Nick, you have a plan for this right?"

"I- um-," Nick stuttered before coughing and glancing around, only to cringe at the sight of the other mammals split between watching them and Ralph who was trying his suggestion to stop the rampaging Nadine.

 _Smooth talking, smooth talking, we had a plan for this right? Play it off like it doesn't matter, right?_

"Right." Nick said, coughing once more before he plastered his best hustler grin on and stepped close to Judy. She squeaked again but didn't move away as he put his arm around her in a casually 'best friends' sort of way and gestured to those still watching them.

"Are we 'WildeHopps'?" he asked like this was just some ZPD interview, "No, no we are not," he added in a somber voice and shook his head in an exaggerated manner. "I am Wilde, and she is Hopps," he gestured to himself and then her. "Wilde _and_ Hopps, not WildeHopps, There's a space in there, well actually two spaces and an 'and'. Completely different." He finished, confidently raising a finger like a school teacher making a point. Judy groaned at his performance and he could feel her head thump his side.

" _Play along if you don't want this to be all over the news tomorrow_." He hissed quietly at her, still trying to hold his smarmy 'you really want to buy what I'm selling' grin toward the crowd.

"Nick, we're already on the news!" Judy groaned again, then added with a slight note of irritation, "And I have seniority over you, shouldn't it be _Hopps and Wilde_?"

"Pfftt- let's be serious here for a second, Fluff." Nick said, an actual smile almost returning for a second as he flicked her ear with the arm he had over her shoulder, "Wilde and Hopps just sounds _so_ much better than Hopps and Wilde."

"Does not!" Judy huffed, her face still in his side even as she elbowing him in the ribs in return for his ear flick. "And if we're going to be known by some stupid nickname, it's not going to be-"

She was cut off as a horrendously savage _**ROAR**_ reverberated through the food court; the sound so purely primal and overpowering and terrifying that it hit Nick's ears, bypassed his brain, and reached down to his base instincts, setting off ever natural survival instinct he had along the way. Every hair on Nick stood on end as that thunderous roar passed through him and before it had even fully registered, Nick had moved, tackling Judy and rolling them under the nearest bit of cover.

* * *

Judy blinked, ears still ringing from the roar and her vision a whitish blur from the sudden tumble as she tried to figure out what had happened.

She opened her mouth, intending to ask Nick, but all that came out was a muffled, "mmmph-mammphhht?"

It took her a second to realize she couldn't speak because her muzzle and face were covered. More like buried actually; buried in a soft cream colored fur… fur that had a delightfully familiar foxy musk.

 _Soooo Fluffy…_

The thought seemed to fill her mind and she couldn't help but nuzzle against the fur for a second before the rest of her brain managed to catch up to what had happened.

She'd been peeking past Nick at the crowd and had seen Ralph still trying to stop Nadine behind him… had been watching right as the wolf booped the tiger's nose.

There had been a look of such utter shock and surprise on Nadine's face that it had almost been comical, and for a moment she'd thought that Ralph had succeeded in getting through to her… right until she roared…

 _What happened after that?_

The next thing Judy had known, her world had been spinning, tumbling; a whirl of russet and cream fur as two arms had grabbed her. Two arms that were still holding her tightly, she realized.

With a start, she realized the fur she was nuzzling was Nick's ruff, right where it puffed out from the unbuttoned top of his shirt. Her nose was pressed against it, buried past the slightly coarser outer layer of his winter coat and nuzzling against his fine downy undercoat.

 _Sooooo FLUFFY…_

The thought consumed her for a moment. She wanted to nuzzle against that oh so downy fur, wanted to continue nuzzling up to his neck, wanted too…

There was a desperate cry from Ralph before he gasped and a nearly feral snarling purr that snapped Judy out of her daydream and back to reality. It also made her ears snap up, and one of then whacked Nick soundly across his nose making him yelp.

Startled, Judy looked up to see Nick, now with one paw off her back and over his nose while his eye's watered, and... she panicked.

She burst out in a confused, embarrassed worried avalanche of questions, blushing violently from the way his other arm was still clutching tightly to her, while simultaneously trying to see if his nose was alright, assure him that she had _not_ meant to do that, and had _not_ just been nuzzling him, and why had he grabbed her and what the heck was that purring sound?

"ow- _owww_! Stop poking it!" Nick managed to get through her barrage of question, grabbing her paw that was probing at his nose to stop it, "I'm all right, it just _smarts_! And sorry for grabbing you, but Fangmeyer lost it and I… I…" he trailed off, but Judy was so close to him that she thought she could see the russet fur on his cheeks darken slight as he looked at her, then quickly away.

 _Is… is Nick_ _ **blushing**_ _?!_

"Oh deerie, he was just worried about you!" said a kindly voice next to them and Judy jumped, looking over to see the wolf couple that had asked about 'them' and the news story, hunched down behind the overturned table Nick had dived behind.

"Why, my mate was all overprotective like that too when we were courting and newlywed, still is sometimes during winter." She added giving Judy a wink that had her cheeks burning and Nick stuttering.

"And with good reason, too!" The male wolf next to her said gruffly, before shaking his head as he peeked over the edge of the overturned table. "What if we had gotten tangled up in _that_?!" There was a desperate call from Ralph that was cut off by an almost ferally possessive _PURRRRRRR_. The male wolf muttered something about 'stupid young idiot wolves always chasing after any pretty tail without a thought in there head', which got an eye roll from his mate. Then he followed that up with a comment about 'uncivilized cats, always ready to go savage during mating season', which received a rebuking ear flick.

"Ow!" The wolf yelped and turned to his mate. "What was that for?!"

"Don't you go blaming that on her being a cat!" The she-wolf said sternly, waving a finger at him as his ears lowered. "With the way you males act sometimes, it could drive any girl to go savage like that poor tiger. The gods know _I've_ felt that way a few times before!"

There was a sullenly contrite. "Yes dear… I- I shouldn't have blamed that on her being a cat…" and after a moment in which the she-wolf looked like she was debating whether to accept the apology, she leaned over to give him a peck on the check and a quick scratch behind the ear she'd flicked.

Then she turned back to Judy with a pleased expression, "See, as crazy as our mates might make us, there's still hope for them." She grinned wickedly, glancing back at her mate whose ears had popped back up after her kiss and was looking at her with a goofy sort of rapt attention.

The she-wolf leaned over to Judy and stage whispered, "My suggestion is to find your mate's weak points and use that whenever he's about to drive you to savagery. A fox isn't a wolf, but he's still a canid so I'd try scratching behind the ears or base of the tail. That's never failed to turn my mate into a pile of tail wagging goo."

 _Oh gods, the boat ride… when I was petting Nick's tail… mate's weak points…_ The thoughts zipped through Judy's mind and collided with some of what Skye had been telling her about foxes and personal space in a spectacular explosion. Some part of Judy that was watching her own mental pileup decided that she'd need to come back to that later; there were some thoughts and speculations amidst that spectacular explosion that seemed rather important. Maybe later though, like when she wasn't too busy blushing herself to death and stammering like a broken typewriter.

"I- Ma'am- we're not- his tail- I couldn't- misunderstanding-"

Judy looked at Nick amidst her panicked stuttering, and at any other time would have probably enjoyed the reaction the she-wolf's comments had gotten from him. Finnick had laughed uproariously when she'd hustled him with his tax forms, but his expression now was so far beyond having 'gotten him _**good'**_ , that Judy doubted she'd ever be able to top it.

"-mates- he's not- I wouldn't- _his tail?-_ "

Nick's eyes connected with hers as she stuttered and his expression morphed from blow away shock to that of utter panic.

"Not the tail!" He yelped, his voice cracking and both paws going behind to clutch the frizzed out appendage protectively as a visible blush traveled up the insides of his ears.

Judy's jaw dropped at his reaction, and there was a snicker from the she-wolf.

"And there you go dear, that's your secret weapon. Why, if your tiger friend had some trick like that to use on him," she gestured past the table toward what sounded like a horror movie mauling sound track for Purred to Death, "she might not have gone _savage_ on her mate."

Judy, still gaping, didn't have a clue as to how to respond to that, not even enough of a thought to start stammering again. The she-wolf's words seemed to be repeating through her mind over and over again before her thoughts focused on one particular part of it

 _she might not have gone savage on him…_

Judy's thoughts replayed that segment again, and she wondered why that seemed important for a moment before her mind, struggling to deal with the current situation, flipped back over into Judy on Duty cop mode out of sheer self-preservation.

"Oh gods, Nick! Nadine's gone savage?!" Judy shot to her feet, looking over the table (and gaped again at what she saw) before starting to charge around toward the commotion, her paws scrambling for her badge and tranq pistol.

" _Judy_! What do you think you're doing?!"

Her head long charge was brought up short as Nick, nearly tackling her, managed to grab hold and bring her to a stop. She looked back at him, more confused than anything, and gestured at Nadine and Ralph like it should have been obvious.

"Savage mammal! We've got to stop her!"

"Oh no we don't!" Nick replied rather frantically.

" _Nick_ ," Judy said disbelievingly, "we're cops! This kind of thing is our job!"

" _No_ ," Nick said vehemently shaking his head, "our job is to protect mammals, not go charging headlong into danger unnecessarily and unprepared! How do you even plan on stopping her?" Judy raised her tranq pistol and Nick blinked, before muttering, " _Of_ course she'd have her gear on her even when she's off duty…"

Nick sighed before pulling her back behind the table and pointing over it.

"Judy, look. Nadine isn't harming anyone, well anyone but Ralph possibly... And she _won't_ unless anyone is crazy enough to get in her way!" Nick waved around the food court where, now that she took a moment to look, Judy noticed that every mammal in the vicinity had apparently scrambled out of the tiger's way. There was a noticeable gap around them of overturned tables and chairs, while their former occupants now watched with fascination from a safe distance.

"Anyway," Nick added, "Ralph's a cop, too, and I think he can handle this situation just fine without us complicating it for him."

There was a particularly savage _**PURRRRRRRR**_ just as Judy heard two howls echoing across the park, and Ralph let out a howl that was the most heart wrenching sound she'd ever heard.

"See?" Nick shouted over Ralph's anguished howl just as the two wolves next to them got dragged into it as well, pointing their noses skyward and howling too.

"He's totally on top of it!"

* * *

 _ ***AWwwwoooooOOOOOOOOOO***_

"Well," Greg said with a grin as Ralph's howl was almost drowned out among the rising Howl that started spreading throughout the park, "I didn't actually think it would be _that_ easy."

Cassandra harrumphed. "See, didn't even take seven howls." Though he could see her relax now that they had a solid lead and a bit of her usual fire return as she looked back at him, a grin matching his own, "Ready to go get our pups?"

"Absolut-"

"HEY! Did you two start that?!" Shouted an elephant security guard that was trying (ineffectually) to shield his massive ears from the cacophony as another wolf couple near them succumbed to the urge to join the howl. "Starting a howl is against Park Rules! If you did that on purpose I'll have to-"

"Oh no!" Greg said, suddenly grabbing his ears as a look of exaggerated confliction spreading across his face. "Cassy, stop me-I can't… can't resist! _AWwwoo_ -" he howled as loudly as he could. Seeing the elephant stop as he winced, Cassy grinned and joined in.

AW-AWAwAwoooo!

AWwwoooo-AwAwawoooo!

Then before the Elephant could recover, Cassy had his paw in hers and they were running down the street toward where they'd heard their son howl.

"That was mean! It's that kind of thing that gives wolves a bad reputation!" Cassy said as she led him, though he could tell by the excitement in her tail as it waved in the wind as they ran that her rebuke was halfhearted at best.

"I-," he panted for a second as he ran, "-thought that it was our big bad teeth that gave us a bad rep!"

"Oh my goodness?! Are you ever going to grow up! How is it that we're Alphas when you still act like a silly puppy most of the time?!" Cassy hurrumphed as she ran, and he snickered.

"Well, that's your fault you know. Being around you makes it impossible for me not to be happy and silly!" He half shouted as they rounded a corner, and grinned wickedly as she tried swatting his nose with her tail.

"Gregory Wolford!-" she shouted back, though he could tell by her tone that she was blushing and trying to hide it.

"Anyway," he cut in gleefully, "I wasn't being mean, I was just following instructions. The soothsayer _did_ say we needed to howl seven times! Wouldn't want to jinx ourselves now would we?"

"Unbelievable! Just Unbelievable!," Cassy muttered in exasperation, "I'm married to a perpetual superstitious teenager!"

"No," he replied without a pause, "You're married to a perpetual superstitious teenager who's never gotten over being ears over paws in love with you."

That got the loudest harrumph yet, though he could easily tell how she really thought by the subtle shifts in her scent, and his tail wagged in turn as he beamed.

There was nothing that was as much fun as playfully poking at Cassy while she tried to maintain a proper, dignified business appearance to the world and hide her emotions and how much he was getting to her. She was quite good at it, and most mammals might not be able to see through the façade, though it was pointless with other wolves, what with their sharp noses and all. The other wolves just never mentioned it because it was very rude to mention secretes gleaned by scent that way, and probably more importantly, because it would be a very stupid thing to do. Greg grinned. Cassy _was_ an alpha for a reason.

* * *

The young boar security guard had come to a stop next to his partner in front of the food court and was watching the scene before them with wide eyes. It was his first day on the job, and it was supposed to be a fairly easy job, just ride around on segways, make sure mammals didn't litter, maybe stop a fight or two… but… but…

 _It's not like I was expecting to deal with freaking savage mammals! Not on my first freaking day at least!_

The wolf being attacked looked like he might have gotten away for a second before the tiger pounced on him with a thunderous _PURRRR_ and that had him howling again.

The boar looked over from his segway to his partner's with more than a little apprehension and confusion, and hoped the older more experience park security guard, an 'I'm not quite middle aged yet' Siberian tiger, would know what to do, "Some, um… do you think we should go in there and try to stop them… her… I mean it is a 10-91 right?"

His partner, who'd dropped his radio in shock when they'd spotted the disturbance, turned to him with an absolutely panicked expression.

" _Are you freaking_ _ **Nuts**_ _?!_ Because I for one don't want to die! And that's exactly what _will_ happen if we try messing with that tigress right now! Hell kid, didn't your mother ever teach you not to mess with angry females?! I'd rather take on a savage heard of elephants or pride of lions! Or both!" The older guard stopped, took a breath and seemed to regain some of his 'just follow me kid, and I'll show you the ropes' appearance he'd had earlier. "Anyway, it's not like she's a public danger right now, well, so long as nobody goes near her."

The boar looked back the food court uncertainly, thinking that over and then asked. "What about the wolf?"

"What about him?" The older guard replied and crossed his arms. "Is he asking for help or look like he's in life threatening danger?"

"Umm…" He thought about that for a second, still watching the scene in shock. "Umm… death by snu snu would sort of be life threatening, right? It looks like she's getting ready to drag him off and well you know…"

"Well… ah," the older tiger looked stumped for a second before he answered. "First, the news was saying he's a cop, right?" He gestured to the TV in the food court showing the broadcast they'd been listening to on the radio. "I think if it came down to us dying by tiger mauling and him dying by snu snu, he'd take that bullet for us, right?" Then muttered for a second, "I mean, I sure would in his place, *cough* ah… patriotic duty to protect others and everything, right...?" He coughed again before continuing, "And second, she's _only_ purring."

 _ ***Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

The young boar's eyes almost popped out of his head as another round of howling from the wolves in the food court, as well as more than a few whistles from others, erupted again.

"Okay, purring _and_ rubbing against him," the security tiger said, rather embarrassed now, "but that's not _technically_ indecent exposure… I think… I mean, their clothes are on and their paws aren't doing anything."

"There is no way in hell that's PG…" The boar mumbled. He didn't think he was predo, like 100% sure he wasn't, but this was still making some of the stuff he'd seen online with even the hottest sows look… a bit mild by comparison.

"Well, today's the parks Valentine's day special event…" The tiger mumbled, eyes glued forward, "Teens and up only in the park today… and it still isn't _technically_ against _-_ "

 _ ***Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

 _ ***AW-AwwwwoooooOOOOOOOOOO***_

"What about _that?!_ " The boar asked, voice a little high, his eyes glued forward, too.

 _By the three little pigs! I, ah… might need to check back on that no-predo inclinations thing because, right now, if I'd been one of those three little pigs and she'd come huffing, puffing and purring to my door…_

"Ah…." His partner said a bit distractedly, "Wow… I mean, holy… gods, I wish my girlfriend would do _that…"_

"Uh Sarge? Not what I was asking…" He said, a bit distracted himself. "But ya, I _sooo_ need to get a girlfriend if it's anything close to that…"

"Still not technically doing anything against the rules…. I think… HOLY-

 _ ***PURRRRRRRRRR***_

 _ ***AWWOOOO-***_

It took the boar a moment to get his mouth to work, "Umm… Sarge… is that a call for help?"

"Do I look like I speak wolf?" The other guard said, just staring.

"RRRrrrralph WOLFORD!" Came a shout as two timber wolves shot past them toward the food court.

"W-what? *pant* " Came a confused reply from the wolf trying not to get purred to death by the tiger, before he squeaked, " _Oh Shit!_ " in a far higher pitched tone.

 _ ***PURRR-**_ The tigress' purr stopped dead at the distressed sound of the wolf pinned to the wall of a food stand, and her head snapped around to the two approaching wolves that had apparently frightened him.

Feral eyes narrowed for a second and the boar's partner suddenly looking white faced, well more white faced than normal for the Siberian tiger anyway, and snapped, "Oh crap, oh crap, Cover Your Ears!"

* _ **ROOOOOOOAAAAAR!***_

The noise seemed to go on forever, and when it finally stopped, every mammal around had stopped dead.

"Okay kid, the shit just hit the fan." The other guard said quickly, a noticeable shake in his voice as the tigress looked ready to shift from a purring frenzy to a killing frenzy as she glared death at the other two wolves… particularly the female. "Lets just try to keep everyone away from the tiger and alive since I don't think our tasers are going to do more than piss her off."

"I thought these were rated for large sized mammals?!" The boar asked, franticly fumbling for his taser on his belt.

"Ya, but do you want to be next to a twitching ball of furious teeth and claws that's going to shred the ever-living hell out of you once the charge is used up, which, might I remind you, goes a lot faster on the _large_ sized mammals setting! Oh crap, let's move!" He said, leaning forward on the segway hard, even getting the wheel to spin for a second…. and then pulled back in a hard stop at a different thundering bellow.

"POLICE, Make **WAY!** What is going- _Fangmeyer_?!" That last part was more of a confused WTF tone and both guards looked over to see a huge cape buffalo come to a skidding stop at the edge of the food court with his arm outstretched, holding back a female buffalo that was trying to look past him like there was some celebrity event going on.

"Isn't that the chief of police?" The boar whispered in astonishment, recognizing the grimacing face he was sure he's seen on tv interviews.

"Oh thank Destiny," the other guard said backing his segway up. "They'll handle this, no need for us to get involved, we'd just get in their way."

The tigress had looked ready to charge before, but had stopped and turned to face the large bull. Now, though, while she was still snarling, she seemed more wary of attacking the larger mammal.

"Shit, shit, shit! Sir, I can explain!" The wolf still pinned by the tiger shouted, sounding panicked and desperate and like he had absolutely no clue how he was going to explain what was going on.

At the sound of the wolf's panicked voice though, the tigers ears flattened all the way and she turned about fully, hunching back on all fours preparing to leap at the bull.

"Bess, get back!" The bull bellowed, reaching for what the boar was really hoping was a tranq pistol since they didn't have any.

"Nadine! NO!" Shouted the wolf at the same time, and leapt on the tigers back just as she startled to lunge forward, and then to seemingly everyone's surprise, stopped.

The big orange and black striped cat let out a confused mewing sound looking back at the wolf hanging halfway on her back.

The wolf quickly scrambled forward to her head nd nuzzled her cheek for a second, murmuring calmly, "Nadine, it's alright. It's alright…" And slowly, the savage tiger visibly relaxed and even let out a low purr again.

"Right, and do you still want to claim you two are just _starting_ to date, _Ralph Wolford_?" Said the female of the two timber wolves that had come running up, the name she'd called out whip-craking in that 'You're in serious trouble this time' tone of a scolding mother.

"I… ah, but we weren't…" The wolf on the tigress all but whined, and the tigress' low purr shifted back to a growl as she tried to gently shake him off her back and face the she-wolf.

"WAIT!" Bellowed the police chief, hoof out in a stop gesture as he moved to interpose himself between the two new timber wolves and the tigress. "Mrs. Wolford, hold off please until we have the situation under control. This is a savage mammal situation, mating season triggered or not, and the tigers _not_ a pack member so all _you're_ going to do is aggravate her."

"She isn't _yet_ …" Mumbled the female wolf angrily, and crossed her arms before glaring at the younger wolf with the tiger. " _This_ is one of the reasons why we have set courting procedures, _Ralph_!"

The younger wolf seemed to wilt under the glare, and shrank down behind the tiger he was still holding onto with both paws. The tiger, on the other paw, snarled viciously at the she-wolf now partially blocked by the bull.

"Dude!" The boar said in a low voice to his partner, now _far_ more relaxed since the police were handling the savage tiger and they were effectively sidelined. "This is like watching the COPS _and_ the Bachelor all in one! All they need is a filming crew."

"Pretty sure they already have that." His partner said, motioning over towards where one of the ZZN film crews that had been filming report segments around the park throughout the day had come racing up to the scene. The video crew was already busy filing away while the reporter was on a cellphone speaking quickly and hurriedly like they'd just struck gold.

"Mrs. _Wolford_ ," the chief of police said, with a familiar exasperation, like this wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with that particular she-wolf, "you can reprimand him all you want once _this_ situation is resolved, and _**I**_ get done reprimanding him, just like any other time you've had to come to pick up one of your wayward strays." The she-wolf harrumphed, but seemed to accept that, and The Chief of Police looked back toward the tiger where she'd backed the wolf up to a corner between two food stands amid a conspicuous gap in the seating where mammals had moved out of the way. "Now, what the hell happened _here_?" He asked, nearly grinding his teeth, though his voice was surprisingly calm and non threatening. Even still, the tiger shifted, looking back and forth between the bull and the she-wolf, a low pervasive snarl emanating from her.

There was a short, cut off snicker, and the bull's head snapped over to a hare with odd fur stripes and an arctic vixen that were casually watching the whole scene and eating peanuts like they were in a drive in theater.

"Savage, Damnit!" The bull snapped, glaring. "Can you not go on a _single_ miss-" He stopped and coughed before continuing, "*ehem* _trip_ to the park without it turning into a _**complete**_ disaster?!"

"I do have a reputation to upkeep, you know." The hare replied nonchalantly, then made a small odd hop like someone had stepped on his toes and the vixen next to him spoke up.

"Sorry about that Bogo, but it _is_ winter, after all. Piling a ton of stress onto someone at the peak of winter courtship, plus whatever Wolford did," there was an indignant 'Hey!' from the wolf, "-was about as good of a way as I can think to make her go savage… well, unless you attacked her cubs…" The vixen shrugged and popped a few of the peanuts into her mouth before continuing. "All we really need to do is just leave her alone for a minute or two and _not irritate her_ ," she added with emphasis and a sharp look, "… and she should snap out of it. Simple as that."

The Bull followed the vixen's look over to another odd vulpine/lapin couple peeking over an overturned table, one of which had a tranq pistol out and looked about ready charge into the fray.

"Wait, aren't those two the cops from the nighthowler incident?" The boar whispered behind his hoof to the other security guard, who was also staring at them. "The ones that the news was saying are _also_ a secret couple?" There was a twitch in the bunny's ear and what might have been a blush, and he wondered if maybe he hadn't said that as quietly as he thought he had.

"Hopps! Wilde! Stand down!" The Bull snapped, just as the wolf hanging onto the agitated savage tiger shouted at the vixen.

"And what do you mean 'plus whatever Wolford did'?" He asked accusingly. "I didn't do anything but try to calm her down!" The tiger's head followed his voice to the vixen and growled at her.

"Well," the vixen replied, seeming unconcerned by the savage mammal growling in her direction, "she was only really pissed before you booped her nose. That's what set her off."

"Ya, and so what?" The wolf replied indignantly, taking a firmer grip on the tiger's neck as her growl increased to a snarl. "When I did that before it stopped her in her tracks! It's like Nadine's reset button."

"Oh you've got to be _kidding_ me!"

The sudden outburst quieted everyone and the boar looked over at his partner who'd facepalmed as he'd spoken. Then looking up and realizing that everyone's attention was on him, he spluttered for an embarrassed second. "I, ah… well, if he's been dating her, _he_ should know what that means!" The security guard said, waving his paw towards the wolf who was staring at him with utter confusion. The tigress, on the other paw, looked at the guard and bristled before bearing _all_ her very impressive teeth at him.

The siberian tiger's eyes got a little wide as a _very_ low hostile growl started emanating from the tigress, and he lifted both paws in a surrendering gesture, before leaning back on his segway, zipping a few feet backwards.

"Woah! Hey! I want _nothing_ to do with this! Not interested! He wins, all yours!"

The tigress made a chuffing sound before turning and rubbing her head and neck against the still confused looking wolf's chest.

"And just what _exactly_ should I know about what that means?! Offt! Hey Nadine?! Stop!" The wolf said, confusion clearly evident in his voice as he was nearly knocked off his feet by a particularly vigorous rub on his chest from the tigress's head as she started purring again. "Um, Hey, Nadine… ah, you know your, ah…" he started blushing as the tiger continued, now rubbing her whole chin and neck along his front, pushing hard enough to back him up against the food stands behind them.

"How have you been dating a tigress and _not_ know about that?" The security guard replied incredulously, still from the spot he'd zipped back to. "Booping isn't like a _reset_ button, it's like the _launch_ button, the Huston we have lift off button. Hell, there are memes about it! Haven't you ever seen one of those 'careful pushing that big pink button' memes? The ones over a picture of a tiger's nose? Or one of those pictures of a mushroom cloud and ' _Boop_!'?!"

"Noo! No I haven't!" The wolf said, his voice gaining an edge of panic as his ears splayed back in alarm while he blushed furiously. "Nadine! My parents are watching! Can't this wait?! – _oohf_!" He was knocked back against a shaved ice drink stand as the tigress jumped up, paws on his shoulders, and gave his muzzle a lick. And then bopped him soundly with her nose, purring loudly. That got a startled noise that almost sounded like a _Meep!_ from the wolf, followed by a alarmed yelp as he lost his footing and balance under the weight of the tigress' paws on his shoulders, slipped, grabbed for the counter of the stand behind him, and managed to bring the counter cloth and all its contents down with him as he and tiger hit the ground in a clatter.

Most of the bottles of flavoring narrowly missed hitting them and bounced off, but the big elephant sized container of shaved ice at the end of the stand was yanked forward as the cloth was pulled out from under it.

It teetered for a second in the middle of the now bare counter top, then flopped over on its side where, upon its lid popped off, and a small avalanche of the snow-like ice dumped on top of the two.

* * *

Bogo glanced from Fangmeyer in a full-on savage state as she pinned Wolford against a shaved ice food stall, to Wolford's mother, who looked about ready to wade in and try cuffing both of them like they we're naughty puppies; to Wilde and Hopps peaking over an overturned table and, to him at least, looking like two kids that had caused a mess and were hoping their parents didn't spot them; and finally, to Savage and Skye, who were watching the whole scene with apparent amusement, like two terrible babysitters that were watching gleefully as the kits tore down the house, and groaned to himself.

 _I should have known better than to call in that favor from Savage._ Bogo mentally fumed. There was some irony in there somewhere that Savage seemed to be wreaking his plans to play reluctant cupid on Valentine's day via _savage_ tiger, but Bogo dismissed that. He had bigger concerns.

He'd been in all sorts of crazy situations throughout his police career, but he had to admit that this one ranked damned near the top for its sheer bizarreness and liability to turn into a full on disaster at any moment.

And the fact that _Fangmeyer_ of all mammals had gone winter savage?! Well, honestly, it wasn't _too_ unexpected that it had happened to one of his officers; it was winter, after all. Winter induced frenzies happened, that was just part of life, especially in the big city with so many mammals, but _Fangmeyer_? She'd been one of the _last_ he would have expected it from; Wilde was at the top of his watch list for signs of losing it though he'd been holding it together… mostly, and Wolford wasn't that far down it either, though he'd been remarkably stable through the last few winters. But _Fangmeyer_?

 _And it couldn't even be at home or in the office away from the public where this kind of thing usually happens. Oh no. Couldn't even be just a little bit of winter peak either, but a full on savage episode! Gah! Why does life seem to hate me?!_

There was a guffawing laugh in Bogo's mind that reminded him far too much of Wilde followed by a brooding voice saying, _Serves you right for turning to the Wilde side!_

And if that wasn't enough, those two voices were joined by a third going, _DOOMED_! _**DOOMED!**_ with a bleating cackle.

Bogo quashed those irritating thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be creatively introspective, (he preferred that explanation to the idea of voices in his head). One of his best teams was half savage at the moment, and the other one was looking flustered and nearly ready to snap as well.

Bogo mentally shuddered at that. The thought of those two little hellions losing it was terrifying. A savage tiger was bad enough, but for what Wilde and Hopps lacked in size they seemed to make up for in pure chaos.

 _Wait… can a bunny even go savage?_

There was the briefest pause as he contemplated that, contemplated not just any bunny going savage, but **Hopps** going savage… and a shiver ran up his back. He _**Did**_ NOT want to find out. If any bunny could, it _would_ be her. Hell, if someone said she _couldn't_ go savage, she probably would _just_ to prove them wrong.

 _ **Doooomed**_ _!_

Bogo refocused, ignoring that ominous hair-raising thought that had sidetracked him. Right at the moment, things were non-violent, and he wanted to keep them that way. Wolford was possibly in danger by getting rubbed to death, but Bogo was sure he'd had a hand in making this mess and felt quite willing to throw him to the wolves- well tiger first in this case, if it kept it that way. The Savages were staying out of the way, along with most of the onlookers, which was probably for the best considering what their 'help' had resulted in so far.

 _Though I'm going to ring that Hare's neck when I get the chance, 'handle the situation' my right horn he did!_

And if he could keep Hopps and Wilde from doing something WildeHopps-ish to aggravate Fangmeyer, like, oh, say… shooting her, then they might get away without anyone having to go to the hospital. (Tranqs took a few seconds to take effect and what that tiger might accomplish in those few seconds worried Bogo… a lot. There were too many mammals close by and this was _Fangmeyer_ , after all.)

Bogo's attention snapped back over to the tigress as she booped Wolford and started purring, only for Mrs. Wolford to shoot them disapproving looks.

 _And if things weren't bad enough, I'm going to have to deal with the Savannah Central pack alphas… again…_

Bogo could feel another headache coming on, Fangmeyer wasn't one of her pack, but Wolford sure as hell was, and he didn't even want to start thinking about how that was going to mess with the convoluted and obscure rules of pack law. 'Pack law' only held limited actual authority in regards to real laws, but he was sure he was going to get his ear talked off by her ad hawk lawyering.

 _Gods, and by the time all of_ _ **that**_ _is done, Bess and I are going to have missed the concert!_

Bogo almost felt like weeping at that thought.

 _Doooomed!_

Then there was a crash and clatter as Fangmeyer and Wolford hit the ground with most of the contents from the food stand behind them and a small avalanche of ice too.

Bogo's shoulders slummed in resignation as everything seemed determined to go to hell and he prepared himself to intervene.

There was a yelp and an even louder yowl from under the small mountain of ice shavings followed by a high pitched screech of, "COLD! COLD! **COLD**! AGHHH!"

Fangmeyer nearly came flying out from the pile, shaking herself furiously. "GAHH! Good GODS _that's_ **COLD**!"

Bogo, just about to charge in, barely managing to stop himself as he looked on in surprise.

Fangmeyer continued to jump around and grabbed the back of her shirt, flopping it back and forth as clumps of ice shavings fell out from under it. Her whole body shivered violently before she finally stopped and turned back to the wolf stuck in the snow drift, looking at her in mild shock.

"Ralph!? What the Hell?! Did you do that?! Because that's _NOT_ Funny!" She reached over and plucked him out of the pile before backing away from it like it might attack her… again, "Don't we have enough to worry about with Megan and my neighbors running their big… mouths… off…" She trailed off as she looked around and noticed that _everyone_ was staring at her.

 _Huh… well… I sure wasn't expecting that to snap her out of it…_ Was about all Bogo could think for the moment, though the thought was followed shortly afterwards by an almost giddy, _Maybe we_ _ **will**_ _make it to the Gazelle concert_ * _Squee!_ *

"What?" Fangmeyer asked, a bit unnerved before spotting him staring at her and went from looking unnerved to looking down right terrified. She glanced quickly between herself and the Wolford and finally back at him, her eyes going wide.

"Ummm… sir, I can explain! We weren't interfering in the… uh, anything… I mean we were, just… just here for some fun, just friends out enjoying the festival!" She managed to squeak.

 _Ah-huh… that sure explains why they're here today at least… guess Clawhauser's attempt to look like nothing was going on probably had them worried._ Bogo wanted to sigh. He used to think that having officers that didn't care enough was the worst problem he might ever face, but sometimes now a days he wished that maybe they didn't care _quiet_ so much. Well… no, that wasn't true, that was part of what he thought was so promising about these youngsters, but if they could just add a bit of common sense to their good intentions and initiative, it would make his life _so_ much easier.

Bogo thought about how he wanted to respond to her panicked statement and ended up just raising an eyebrow.

 _Might as well give her some more rope and see what else she confesses to._

The sudden silence in the food court lengthened and Fangmeyer gulped.

"Oh were you now?" Bogo finally asked in a voice so calm that most criminals found it terrifying (it was one of his favorites and he'd worked on it for years. He was rather proud of that voice.)

There was another gulp from the tiger and Bogo couldn't hold back a snort as he watched her. He pointedly looked at Wolford and repeated what she'd said in that same, oh so calm voice, though there might have been the faintest hint of sarcasm in it this time, "Just friends out to enjoy the festival?"

The tigress glanced down, following his gaze to her paw where she'd been brushing the ice off Wolford only to see the big heart shaped sticker with ' _You're Purrrfect!_ ' that was clearly visible due to her efforts. Her face seemed to try to blush and drain of color at the same time to a rather interesting effect on her orange, black and white fur. Wolford's gaze followed hers and he grinned goofily, his tail starting to wag… only for it to stop when he glanced at Bogo.

"Ummmm…" Wolford seemed to freeze up while Fangmeyer hurriedly tried to explain their situation,

"I, ah, sir, um, not what it, uh, looks like, I mean ah, sir, we were planning… ah, I mean planning _on_ ah…" She glanced back at him, meeting his still upraised eyebrow, and her face seemed to decide on its choice as the blood drained from it and she hurriedly finished in one fast statement, "Sir-I-swear-we-weren't-hiding-our-relationship,I-mean-we-only-just-started, _are_ - _going_ -to-start-dating-and-we-were-absolutely-going-to-tell-you-Monday."

Bogo sighed and put his hoof up to his temple and rubbed at it.

 _Gods, was I ever that young and idiotic and in love?_ He saw Bess out of the corner of his eye as she watched the two young officers with gleeful delight, and he grunted.

 _Had to ask a stupid question…_

"Tomorrow. Noon. My office." He said sternly, looking back at the two officers before him, both of whom now looked exceedingly worried, "And you'd better have the Department's Internal Relationship Declaration forms already completed, _and_ scheduled yourselves up with the Mammal Recourses for their 'Proper Workplace Conduct' training sessions for those in workplace relationships, _if_ you want there to be a _chance_ of convincing me that you two can still work as a team and I should sign the waiver to let you two stay together as partners instead of breaking you up and transfer you to different precincts."

Just because he'd been a young in love idiot once upon a time too, didn't mean that he'd let them off easy. Anyway, a good old-fashioned Chief chewing over would make sure that they thought twice before goofing off or making out while on the clock.

Bogo managed not to snort as he watched the built up tension in his two officers ease. He was about to order them to clean up the mess they'd made and call his work here done. He had his plan for WildeHopps to get back on track and darnit, he had a concert to get to with Bess, after all!

"They _won't_ be making that meeting tomorrow, Chief Bogo." Interrupted the authoritative voice of the female Alpha of the Savanna Central pack and Bogo, grimaced.

 _Damnit, forgot about them._

"And why _not_?" He replied, trying to keep his voice civil. The concert would be starting in just a few minutes, and he did _not_ want to have to deal with this headache right now.

"Because _they_ are going to be getting _married_ tomorrow at noon." The she-wolf said, crossing her arms with a look that just dared him to try and challenge her on that.

Bogo grimaced again before flinching at the ear piercing, "wwwhhhaAAATTT?!"

* * *

"wwwhhhaAAATTT?!" Nadine felt like she'd just had another mountain of ice dumped on her as she stared open jawed at Ralph's mother. The last few minutes had seemed like a nightmare, the TV interview, _WolfEyer_ , getting dunked in _freaking_ **ICE**. It was all like one long nightmarish blur and she just wanted to run away and hide from it all. She hadn't run away from anything (well, anything but Ralph's confession) since she was a little cub hiding from thunderstorms under her blankets in bed, but that was looking like an increasingly good option, (especially if there was a certain wolf also under those blankets to snuggle with while he told her it was just a bad dream.)

Ralph's _mother_ -and what by Rajah's striped tail was she doing here?!- shifted her gaze off of the chief and narrowed it on her.

"Oh, don't you even _try_ to argue, young women! Not after flouting all our traditions and sneaking around with my son!-"

Nightmare, had to be a nightmare. The craziest, weirdest, oddest nightmare she'd ever had.

Nadine swore to herself that once she woke up she was going to find Ralph and ask him out formally and make sure that _nothing_ like this nightmare ever happened for real. Now if she could only wake up.

"-I won't have anyone trying to run him out of our pack in disgrace because of what you two have been sneaking around doing. You _marked_ him so you're By The Gods _**Going**_ to _Marry_ Him!"

"I… WHAT?" Dream or not, that caught her by surprise, "I, but, I DID _NOT_!" She said adamantly, and turned to Ralph so he could back her up.

Ralph only blushed, looking conflictingly embarrassed, happy and terrified all at the same time, his tail apparently unsure if it wanted to wag or curl under him, tried to do both.

" _Ralph_?" Nadine asked quietly, a pleading note in her voice.

"Don't even try to deny it. You marked him so much during that little savage outburst that a skunk blinded mole could smell it." Ralph's mother said accusingly.

Ralph, for his part, didn't help as he looked at his feet, shuffling them hesitantly for a second, before cautiously looking back up at her and visibly blushing. Then, just when she didn't think her current nightmare couldn't get any worse, it _did_ and some bits of the past few blurry minutes of this nightmare started coming into full focus.

She hadn't. "I didn't!" Savage? Her? "No, not possible," She was staring at Ralph, Ralph who wasn't denying any of it, wasn't telling her it wasn't true, _Why_ wasn't he telling her it wasn't true?! "Ralph, tell me that's not true!" Nadine only just realized that she'd been more speaking her panicked thoughts out loud than just thinking them, when Ralph responded.

"Nadine, you, ah, kind of did go full 'Winter' there… thought that, ah, might have been my fault…" He said as he looked down, mumbling. "You were kind of freaked out and I, um, tried to calm you down… by, ah…," he winced slightly, giving her an apologetic look, "booping your nose…"

 _Boop_

Ralph _had_ booped her. Booped her right after he'd found out what her bite this morning meant to felines.

 _Boop_

He'd booped her.

 _Boop_

 _Don't freak out, Don't freak out, Don't Freak Out!_

 _Boop_

"Okay, _Fine_! I might have gone a little Winter Crazy there, but I did not mark you yet!" Nadine practically shouted, then winced as that last word came out, she hadn't meant to say that bit out loud either.

"I _haven't…_ " Her words die as she took in Ralph's expression. She knew that expression, it was his 'how do I tell Nadine she's dead wrong?' expression.

Nadine grabbed both his shoulders and started sniffing him.

Ears. _No_. Head. _No_. Muzzle. _No_. Chest. _Oh Crap_.

Traces of her scent were _all_ over him from spending the day running around the park, but his chest, the whole damn front of him didn't just have traces of her scent; it _reeked_ of her scent. _That_ scent. It smelled stronger of her than _she_ did. It was like he'd washed his shirt in her scent.

An idea clicked into Nadine's mind. A crazy absurd idea, but it was that or snatching Ralph and running for it.

"Ha!" She said loudly turning back to his mother, a slightly crazed triumphant smile on her face, "I _didn't_ mark him, I only marked his _shirt_!" She gestured, emphasizing, " _ **My**_ Shirt!"

Ralph's mother gave a dismissive snort, but Mr. Wolford actually broke out into an amused laugh.

"I like her, Cassy. She's got spunk like you."

"Not _Helping_!" Mrs. Wolford hissed back at him, though it looked like for a second she might have actually smiled.

"Okay, how about this then." Mr. Wolford said with a grin, giving his wife a peck the cheek before he turned to look back at Nadine and Ralph with an almost amused air. "So Nadine, or should I call you Naddy? Your parents said that's what they liked to call you. Anyway Naddy, care to explain why you marking his shirt _while he's wearing it_ , means your only claiming the shirt and not him, too? _Hummm?_ " He added, grinning like a teacher waiting for a student to try answering a trick question.

"I, ah…" Nadine's ears pinned back, "uh…" _Crap._ Ralph's mother was smirking at her now, too. "Uh…" That smirk made another idea click, and Nadine pointed an accusing claw at the she-wolf. "Because _you've_ been trying to set up _my_ boyfriend with other dates! That shirt ought to make it damned clear that I have first pick on him!"

"So, you admit you two have been dating then." His mother said, smirk widening like she'd just won.

Nadine tried not to snarl back at her. "We're dating as of right bloody _now_!"

"Uh-huh," her smirk was the epitome of wolfish, "and how do you want to explain his mark on you?"

This time, it didn't feel like she'd been dunked in ice; it felt like her very blood had turned to ice.

 _She can't know that!_ _ **Ralph**_ _doesn't even know that and I've been hanging out with him all day!_

"I, I h-have n-no idea what you mean!" She barely got out just as Ralph bristled, saying, "I haven't! I _wouldn't_ , not without asking her first! I… Nadine?"

 _Damnit! I should have just kept my mouth shut!_ Ralph was looking at her with a confused expression, clearly having caught the odd tone in her voice.

"Son," his father spoke up, still seeming to enjoy all of this, "did you forget how to use your nose, or have you just been thinking about _other_ things all day? It's faint, but I can smell it from here."

Ralph's nose started twitching, sniffing, and Nadine felt a flare of panic rise within her again.

 _Don't freak out, Don't Freak Out! He must have just guessed! The deodorants covered it up all day, he wouldn't be able to smell it through all…_

Ralph's nostrils flared and his nose angled toward her, sniffing more rapidly as he took a step closer.

 _ **freak**_ _out, Don't_ _ **Freak**_ _Out!_ Nadine could feel her attempts to hold it together failing as Ralph's nose came closer and he stood on his toes, bringing his muzzle nearer to hers.

Sniff, sniff, sniff, pause… _**sniff**_...

"Ralph, come on, you know you haven't…" Nadine said a bit shakily. His eyes had closed and when he reopened them momentarly, they seemed glassy and a bit distant.

"The deodorant's gone…" He mumbled before his muzzle touched the spot he'd marked this morning, and he took one more _long_ sniff.

 _Gone?! GONE?! How could it be_ _ **gone**_ _?! It's not like I've… showered…_

The boat flipping…

getting dunked…

toweling off...

 _Fuck._

It must have washed away most of the deodorant…

 _Okay, time to Panic yet?_

 _No, hold it together, just hold it together..._

Ralph's sniff ended and his eyes popped back open, a look of near savage intensity behind those pure gold eyes that froze her. She couldn't breath, she couldn't think, she couldn't look away…

"Nadine? When? I- _when_? I don't remember… this morning? All that deodorant… But… but, why didn't you…"

She already knew the question that was coming. He was going to ask her why she hadn't just rejected him if she didn't want the mark. Why she'd hidden it instead of telling him no. Which had a simple answer, one she just hadn't wanted to admit yet, not even to herself, because she _knew_ she wouldn't have been able to tell him no. Ralph was looking at her, looking _right_ _at_ _her_ , a nearly primal longing and fear in his eyes, a look that broke her heart into a thousand little tiny pieces...

 _Okay time to panic! Time to_ _ **panic**_ _!_

Nadine grabbed Ralph's muzzle with both paws preventing him from saying anything further and then tried to figure out what to do next.

 _Crap!_

She couldn't take that look, she just couldn't, and his parents were right there and they were in the middle of the freaking park, and the Chief was staring stone faced, and Judy was looking on wide eyed, and… and…

"Ralph," Nadine whined in a terrified whisper, "everybody is watching us here! I'll answer as soon as we get away from them all and I can explain, just, just… _shush_ about that until then, okay? _Please_?" That last part was a full on whine and she hoped he understood what she was trying to say with her eyes.

Ralph didn't say anything for a moment, but then that half wild panicky look in his eyes faded a bit and he nodded slightly.

Nadine sighed, and then just because she couldn't resist with how utterly relieved she was, kissed his nose quickly.

"Well, now that you two have that sorted out, why don't you come along with us." Mr. Wolford said pleasantly, clapping his paws like her whispered exchange with Ralph had settled the issue. "Naddy dear, your parents are coming in by train in a bit and I'm sure they'd like to see you as soon as they arrive."

Annnd Nadine's relief vanished, her tail spiking like it had been yanked.

"Oh, nooo, no, _no_!" She said turning back around and unconsciously using Ralph as a shield, "That is _not_ going to be happening! I'm _sure_ they're ready to see _me,_ but I am in _no_ way ready to see _them_!"

 _I don't think I could survive another one of their 'talks' today, that phone call was bad enough!_

"You don't mean that." Mr. Wolford said cajolingly. "They want to have some time to talk to both of you before the ceremony tomorrow, and there's some other details that need to be finalized first, too."

"Ceremony?!" Nadine's voice was going high again.

Mrs. Wolford rolled her eyes. "Yes, the _wedding_ ceremony. Now, hurry up, because we still need you to try on the dress to make sure it will fit and-"

" _DRESS?! WEDDING?!"_ Rajah save her, how had she forgotten that from just a minute ago?

"Um, look Mrs. Wolford," Nadine tried saying calmly, though she sounded anything but calm, hell she felt anything but calm, "I appreciate all your support and everything but this is all going a bit fast," Nadine grabbed Ralph's paw and took a step backwards, "and Ralph and I need to discuss some things." The she-wolf's eyes narrowed on her, and Nadine took another step back, pulling Ralph along with her, "And there will be _No_ marriages tomorrow! Now if you don't mind-"

"Oh, there's _going_ to be a wedding," the wolf said and reached over, pulling a piece of paper out of her mate's pocket and snapping it open at them to display some legal looking document. "And you two _are_ going to be there." Nadine tried to take another step back, but Ralph had gone stiff at the sight of that piece of paper. "We have a signed court order saying so, and if you two try to run, I'll have him," she pointed over to the Chief, "cuff you and drag you along."

"You can't do that!" Nadine said, her jaw dropping and she turned to Ralph gesticulating wildly. "She can't do that! Can She?! … _Ralph_?"

Ralph gulped and looked back at her his ears and tail down and limp, "Actually Nadine… she might…"

" _WHAT_?! **HOW**?!"

"Because he's one of our pack, little miss kitty. You probably should have read all the fine print before starting to date a wolf, and certainly before you took my son as your mate." Mrs. Wolford said with a victorious little smile.

Nadine looked over at the chief who was grimacing in annoyance, which was a _very_ bad sign, and then around in a panic as if someone might be able to help her.

* * *

 _Stupid wolves and their stupid back woods lawyering._

Bogo's teeth started grinding again in irritation. Just when he seemed to get one problem solved another got in his way.

 _What else is going to go wrong?_ He thought darkly for a moment as Fangmeyer started glancing around desperately, like she was looking for any way to avoid being dragged off to the gallows. The air of panic the tiger was giving off had a bit of worry shooting through the more disciplined part of Bogo's mind. Fangmeyer snapping again from the stress would certainly not be good. Not good at all. If he could only…

Bogo's phone rang disturbing his irritated and worry thoughts.

"WHAT?!" Bogo bellowed, nearly breaking the cellphone as he yanked it out of his pocket, and inadvertently silencing everyone in the vicinity. Everyone except the mammal on the other end of the line.

"Chief!" came an insufferably gleeful and upbeat voice amid a cacophonously noisy background of cheering mammals, "Where is everyone? The concert is about to start! *Squeal* OMG OMG There she is! * _ **Squeal**_!* Chief I thought ' _The_ _Plan'_ was to already have them here? Where _is_ everyone?" Clawhauser's voice was momentarily cut off by a booming 'Helloooo Zootopia!' of his personal idol and something small and innocent deep inside Bogo seemed to break and cry as he realized that the concert wasn't _about_ to start but was start _ing_ right that moment.

 _And don't forget the plan,_ that disciplined part of his mind tried calling over his internal weeping, _Missing the concert is just a_ _ **life**_ _ending tragedy, missing the concert and having the plan fail would be a_ _ **world**_ _ending disaster!_

There was a cracking sound in his hoof before a small popping noise and Bogo looked down with dismay to look at the crushed remains of his phone.

"Well, as fun as this all has been I think my work here is done and it seems that we're late," piped up a confident voice as Jack reached over and took Skye's paw.

"Congratulations!… I guess? on your wedding tomorrow," Skye added with a small jaunty wave as she starting to walk off with Jack, then added with a wink, "Though if you _do_ want to see the concert first I'm pretty sure that you actually need to be served the court order _before_ you have to listen to it."

There was a silent pregnant pause.

"oh, right!" Hopps sad suddenly, her ears snapping up, her voice in 'here's the law' cop mode, "They actually have to hand them the order before it takes effect!"

The bunny stopped and looked up, as if the implications of what had just been said sunk into everyone.

 _ **Doooomed**_ _!_

Bogo had a moment of terrible foreboding as his mind shouted, _No, no, no,_ _ **Wait**_ _!_

But it was already too late. The food court erupted in chaos.

Fangmeyer grabbed Wolford as his mother dashed forward, order in hand, and the tiger leaped aside just in time to avoid her, bowling over tables and chairs as she rolled.

Hopps and Wilde as all the other mammals in the area, went scrambling out of their way as tables and chairs went flying.

"GREG, GET THEM!" the she-wolf shouted amid the bedlam and Bogo hit the ground as a flipped table sent someone's dessert plate flying past where his head had been a moment before.

Bogo looked back up just as Jack and Skye ran past, still holding paws as the hare grinned broadly and shouted, "See you at the concert Mason!"

He could feel a vein pulse angrily in his forehead as he ineffectual bellowed after them to get back here and help.

"Cassy! I got her! I gotttah _hhhhh_!" Bogo looked up just in time to see Wolford's father, who'd been getting dragged along clinging to Fangmeyer's tail, get sent flying as she whipped in a tight turn, only for the wolf to collide with his wife who'd been about to jump on the tiger as she carried Wolford in both paws like he was some stolen prize.

Fangmeyer, with a nearly feral look of panicked in her eye, threw Wolford over her shoulder and dropped, sprinting away on three paws as she held him, only for Wolford's parents to untangle themselves and cut off her escape.

"Fangmeyer!" Bogo starting to yell as she turned again, only to go wide eyed himself and duck as the _terrified_ looking tigress vaulted over him, using his back like a spring board and the Wolfords, just a few steps behind her, crashed into his front toppling him backwards.

 _Not Good, Not Good…_ was about the only thought that made its way through his mind as he tried untangling himself from the wolves and watched as Fangmeyer, ears completely flat against her skull, sprinting pell-mell for the street.

"Hopps, Wilde!" Bogo shouted out of desperation, pointing after the tiger, "Make sure she doesn't relapse!"

There was military crisp, "Yes Sir!" from Hopps and she took off like shot out of a gun, Wilde on her heels and Bogo cringed, almost immediately regretting his order as the do or die amount of determination in Hopps voice sent another wave of ominous foreboding through him.

* * *

"Hah, Told you I had seniority!" Judy yelled sprinting toward the park security guards that Nadine had just bolted past.

"Still doesn't sound as good!" Nick shouted, just behind her, "But what's the plan because we're never going to catch Fangmeyer in a foot chase!" Judy for her part just smirked as she fished her police badge out of her pocket.

"I know! That's why we're not going on foot!" Judy shouted back before jumping up onto the front control panel of the tiger security guard's segway, sending it bobbing back and forth, "Police Emergency! We need to borrow this!" she shouted waving her badge with one paw as the startled guard practically fell off his vehicle in surprise.

" _Whoah_!" Judy said, the sudden absence of the tigers weight sending her and the controls dipping forward and the segway zipping ahead right at Nick.

The fox yelped, leaping right before he got run over and clutched at the vertical post of the segway as it rocketed forward, Judy dangling from the controls.

"JUDY!" Nick hollered his voice rising with concern as he looking toward where the segway was headed.

"On It!" she said and swung her body to the side tilting the controls. The segway spun in a tight turn nearly clipping the Chief as he disentangled himself from the wolves that had run into him and heading generally back in the direction Nadine had gone.

"Carrot sticks!" Judy cursed as she over corrected and tried flinging her body back in the other direction like a gymnast on parallel bars, "These didn't look _that_ hard to control!" she said irritatedly, over corrected again and just barely missed hitting the guard from whom they'd borrowed the segway as he dived out of the way.

"Maybe because this one is just a _little_ **big** for us beginners?" Nick yelled from below and Judy scoffed indignantly though she was grinning widely. She thought she was getting the hang of this. Swinging her body to the side again, Judy managed to dodge a bystander and get them going mostly in the right direction before she felt a paw grab her swinging foot and then something solid underneath it.

Judy glanced down seeing that Nick had gotten himself fully onto the segway and was standing under her, one paw with a white knuckled grip on the segways vertical shaft and the other holding her hindpaw on his shoulder. Grinning fully now, she settled her other foot on his other shoulder and stood on tiptoes, now just barely able to actually see over the control panel.

"Oh this is _much_ better!" Judy shouted with glee as she deftly zigzagged their way through a news crew that had been setting up, sending mammals scurrying out of her way but not so much as brushing the cameras as she shot by.

"Ready Nick?" Judy asked, the adrenalin and excitement flaring in her, all the uncertainty and confusion of her whipsawing emotions and thoughts from the last few minutes vanishing before the simple straightforward orders from Bogo.

"NO!" Nick shouted in response though she could feel him setting his feet in a firmer stance. Nearly giggling with excitement Judy pointed forward and shouting like some salty sea captain, hollered "Full Speed Ahead!"

Nick grumbled something about 'Crazy' but the rest of what he said was lost as he leaned forward, and her ears started flapping in the wind as the segway accelerated even more.

* * *

"There getting away!" The she-wolf on Bogo yelped, scrambling back to her feet and stepping right on his snout in the process, "Come on Greg or we'll lose them again!" She was about to go sprinting off after them when Bogo saw Bess's hoof shoot forward, grabbing the wolf and yanking her back onto Bogo… just before there was a blur of squealing tires that flashed by just inches in front where Bogo's face was. Bogo gulped involuntarily as he thought he felt the segway _barely_ clip his horns.

"Careful there Cassandra!" Bess said chidingly, as the wolf regained her balance and shot her a quick smile before taking off after Fangmeyer again.

"I owe you one Bess!" she called back, her husband shooting Bogo a smile and quick grinning 'Sorry Mason!' as he followed her.

"Then make sure you save us seats at the wedding tomorrow!" Bess shouted after them as she reached down and helped Bogo to his feet.

He only groaned.

The sound wasn't because he was hurt at all but because he was pretty sure he knew what he'd be stuck doing tomorrow and it would involve sitting through a gods awful long ceremony in his dress uniform.

"Bess, whose side are you on?" Bogo asked grumpily as he brushed off the dust on his clothes.

There was a shout from behind him of "Official Business! We need to borrow that!" and he turned just in time to see the other park security segway nearly burn rubber as it took off after the first one, leaving both security guards looking after their vehicles in bewilderment.

"Oh, just the side of happily ever after," Bess replied smoothly and leaned in to peck his cheek, "And since I am, I think we need to go after them and make sure that the _other_ cute little couple of yours gets their happily ever after too don't you think? It would be a shame if your plan falls apart after all the work you've put into it."

"And how would we even catch up to them?" Bogo asked morosely, his thoughts thinking of how his plan seemed to be falling apart piece by piece. Well that _and_ how Fangmeyer seemed on the verge of going savage again, _and_ most importantly of all, how they were missing the concert right at that moment.

Bess only hummed thoughtfully her gaze traveling over his shoulder. He followed her eyes to see an elephant security guard pulled up on another segway and looking at the disaster scene of the food court with open trunked disbelief.

Bess gave him one of her smiling looks, full to the brim with giddy unrestrained excitement and Bogo groaned again even louder.

* * *

"Skye, why that was just down right _evil_!" Jack laughed as they ran paw in paw, skye just ahead of him. Well, Skye was more skipping than running, but he was trying to ignore that. Not that he had anything against skipping (except what secret agent ever skipped through an assignment?), no he was trying to ignore it because Skye was using every skip to swish her tail in his face.

 _Swoosh_

It was annoying… and highly arousing... frankly it was annoying him because of just how aroused it was making him…

 _Swoosh… flick_

The tip of her tail just caught the tip of his nose and he could hear the foxy smugness in her voice

"Oh that was just fun, you haven't seen _evil_ yet _Mr._ Savage! _Giggle._ "

 _Swoosh_

Jack wanted to disagree, he was pretty sure that 'evil' was a gorgeous arctic vixen that had him by his peanuts.

 _Well… maybe more wicked than evil… But I might have to investigate that further…_ Jack mussed, as Skye skipped again, the motion showing off the rear quite nicely even as her tail _swooshed_ across his nose interrupting his view.

 _Yes,_ Jack thought seriously, looking at the possibly evil, possibly wicked vixen in front of him, _I must investigate further, for the safety of Zootopia of course._

 _Swoosh-_ _ **Squeeeeal-**_

Jack's ear flipped up and back at the squealing sound, and, as Skye took her next skip, raising up on one foot, he pulled on her arm, spinning her around like a top and out of the way of the barely in control segway that shot past them.

There was another giggle from Skye as she shifted in the spin only to fall draped on his other shoulder, one paw still in his and the other around his Neck

"Jack! Tut-tut," Skye said demurely, even batting her eyelashes vapidly, though she was grinning the whole time, "We can't start dancing here! _That's_ for the concert, silly!" She tapped him on his nose, then leaned in to kiss him. Only to stop a hare's breath away from his lips and giggle teasingly.

Jack managed to resist… for a about a second, then closed the distance to kiss her. Only for Skye to step back with another giggle and pull him forward.

He stumbled at the unexpected move, flopping forward just as _another_ commandeered segway to shot past where _he'd_ just been. His faceplanting fall though was broken by something, two somethings in fact that were quite soft.

"Why Jack! That's _terribly_ forward of you!" Skye said scandalized, still in that dainty voice, "I- I mean, _in public_ *gasp* I thought you were a gentle _wabbit_!" Jack looked up as her chest vibrated under his chin with a giggle that she was barely keeping contained.

"Skye," Jack said in firm voice, face still nested between her breast, and she giggled out loud this time smiling down at him.

"If you call me a ' _wabbit',_ one. more. time. you can forget about the concert because we'll be going _straight_ home so I can show you _exactly_ what the difference between a rabbit and a hare is!"

Jack felt Skye's tail wrap around his legs as she leaned down close to him and breathed huskily into his ear.

"Ohh… That is _such_ a tempting offer my… _wwwrabbit._ " she smirked and nipped his ear, before sprinting off dragging him along by the paw, giggling furiously, "But I want to _Dance_ before we get to _that_!"

Skye's giggles were cut off though as yet _another_ segway, this time an elephant sized one went zipping by them, only for Bess to lean out behind Bogo and wave as it shot past.

" _Toodles_! We'll see you at the concert!" she called back at them gleefully as they disappeared down the road.

Skye came to a stop staring, before she crossed her arms and huffed.

"Why does _everyone_ but us have segways!" She turned to him looking like someone had just stolen her lollypop, "Jack, if you can get us to the concert before them, I'll take back everything I said about you being reckless."

"Throw in a kiss and you've got yourself a deal-mmphhhh." Jack's ears snapped up in surprise as Skye grabbed him, giving him a whopper of a kiss.

It wasn't a gentle or a sweet kiss, though it tasted delightfully of cherries. And, Jack thought as Skye pulled away, it wasn't _nearly_ long enough either.

"Now how about you get us to that concert, so we can continue that?" Skye asked, a rumbly purr in her voice.

Jack grinned.

"Reckless was it?" he asked looking around, before his eyes stopped on an unlikely possibility, though…

His ears were already up so he turned them, feeling which direction the late afternoon breeze was going in, then grinned more.

 _Maybe not so unlikely… and it's not like it would be the most reckless thing we've done either…_

"Come on," Jack said to Skye, leading her across the street, adding, "segway's are just silly, I'll get you there in _style_."

"Well," said one of the park salesmammal's, an elephant holding a huge stack of cotton candy cones in one hand and a small mountain of balloon's in the other, as Jack pulled Skye to a stop in front of him, "I think I know just what you're looking for." And using his trunk, pulled a heart shaped balloon off the cluster and handed it to Jack.

"That'll be a buck unless you two want some cotton candy as well." The elephant asked holding down the stack of cones for him.

"Why that might be perfect," Jack said selecting one of the cones and handing it to Skye before pulling out his wallet and glancing up at the balloon, looking rather dubious.

"You know though… I don't think just one balloon is enough to express how I feel for Skye," Jack said shooting her smirk and pulling out a rather large bill, "how many will this get me?"

* * *

"So umm… Nadine?" Ralph asked tentatively, over the sound of her huffing breaths as he was bounced around on her shoulder, "Does this mean we're eloping?"

There was almost a growling sound from Nadine as she sucked in air, still sprinting for all she was worth, before snapped between breaths, "That depends!"

"Umm… Depends on what exactly?" Ralph asked his tail starting to wag. There was another louder growling sound from Nadine, this one more far more possessive while the last had been more vexed, and with a silly grin Ralph tried desperately to rein in his tail that was flapping in her face.

"Depends on whether we escape!" Nadine snapped out, her breaths a bit short as she gulped in air, "any ideas. On _where_ we can. Can escape to?" she asked the strain of carrying him while sprinting all out starting to show.

"Umm…" Ralph thought furiously for a second. It was going to be damned hard to throw his parents with the fresh scent trail they'd be able to follow now, and to make things worse, while Nadine was faster in a sprint, she didn't have the sheer endurance he and other wolves did. His parents would run them to ground before too long, especially with Nadine already flagging.

Ralph turned his head around to see where they were going, then grinned.

"Nadine hold up for a second!"

She stopped, one paw going to her knee as she panted hard, and he scrambled down off her shoulder before grabbing that paw with his, "Quickly this way, before they catch up!" Ralph shouted and ran over where a line of different sized carriages were lined up, all festooned with Valentines day hearts and streamers. Ralph ran up to one of the larger ones, a rickshaw with two Zebra pullers who looked at them curiously as they ran up.

"You two sure look like you're in a hurry," the first said zebra said with a snort, "What, did you forget what time the concert started?"

The second zebra reached over and cuffed the first behind the head, hissing sharply, "Be polite to the customers!" before turning to them and clearing his throat, "Ehem, sorry about that, Where would you two like to go this Valentines day, fares are-"

"Concert!" Ralph barked, nearly shoving Nadine into the seat and climbing up behind her. Ralph turned to them as the first zebra laughed, the second now looking slightly irritated and pulled out his wallet grabbing all his remaining cash without even bothering to count it and shoving it into the Zebra's hoof with a, "and _Hurry!_ "

The Zebra stared at his hoof for a second before saying, "Right away Sir!" now looking anything but irritated as he pocketed the wad of cash and grabbed the pull bar, "High ho Silver!" he whinnied to his partner, "You heard our fine customers, to the concert! Fast as we can!"

The cart jerked hard, sending Ralph stumbling backwards as it was lifted and both Zebra's threw their weight into the pull bars. Nadine's paws hooked him, pulling him into her lap before he could fall and Ralph tilted his head back, looking up at Nadine upside down and grinning goofily.

She looked down at him, still panting and after a few moments as the cart picked up speed, her brows furrowed.

"What?" she asked and his grin got even goofier.

"You." he almost sing-songed, his smile almost to the point of bursting, " _ **like**_ me!

The blush that crossed over Nadine's face was the prettiest thing he had ever seen and made his tail thump wildly against her.

"Not, just 'like' like," he continued, "but ' _ **like**_ ' me! You, Nadine, _**LIKE**_ Me! Nadine Fangmeyer ***** _ **LIKES***_ Me!" " Ralph nearly howled jubilantly.

" _Shut_ -Up!" Nadine squeaked in a high pitched voice, blushing even more as he leaned his head back against her and crowed, "She _LIKES_ Me! She _**LIKES**_ Me! She _LIKES_ _**Me**_! ME! Nadine _**LIKES**_ -" Nadine snarled and kissed him.

* * *

"She's Crazy! She's-" Nick muttered as the segway accelerated to speeds he wouldn't have thought possible and his heart rate picked up its pace to match out of sheer fright.

Such silly looking vehicle shouldn't be capable of reaching such speeds, he thought. It wasn't right, there had to be some rule or law against such terrifying ridiculousness, he didn't care if it was bigger than him, it was _still_ a silly vehicle! And as such, it should have been restricted to silly vehicle speeds, like Judy's Meter Maid Joke Mobile.

"-Crazy, absolutely crazy! Crazier than the craziest vixen! I'm in love with a crazy daredevil vixen-bunny!" Nick continued to mutter under his breath as he shifted his balance, following Judy's lead as she maneuvered through the crowds on the street.

"Whoo-hoo!" Judy hollered above him in excitement as they zipped along after the tiger in the distance and Nick made the mistake of looking up at her. His fearless little bunny, full of excitement from the chase was smiling broadly in a way he found terrifying and beautiful, her ears and shirt flapping in the wind (and giving him teasing peaks of snow white belly fur) as she hooted and pumped her fist. The sight scent a pang of heartache through him, though that was only a problem for a second because his vision whited out as his upturned nose, right below the level of Judy's belly got a full blast of excited bunny.

The scent rolled through him, causing some primal part to howl in his mind like Wolford had earlier and he was lost for a few moments, his mind only able to focus on his bunny, how she smelled, how _close_ she was, how he _needed_ her.

Judy's foot snapped him out of it, as she shifted sideways, one foot still on his shoulder and the other now stepped right onto the top of his head, as she posed pointing forward and gleefully shouting "Onward, Onward!"

Nick leaned forward again following Judy's command without even thinking about it while he tried to recover from that momentary loss of control that had him sinking his claws into the plastic of the segway and breathing raggedly. He tried to take in a full breath but found that he seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"I see them Nick!" Judy shouted, pointing forward to where the two were scrambling into a carriage, "We're catching up!"

"Not before we do!" shouted another voice as Wolford's parents on another segway roll up beside them.

"Hey!" Nick said, to surprised and out of breath to say something witty, but then managed to gasp out a, "CopyCats!"

"Be careful who you're calling a cat!" Wolford's mother snapped, shooting him an alpha glare that had his tail instinctively curling up under him.

"What the Hell?! That was uncalled for!" Nick snapped back at her, and muttered darkly about abuse of the canine codes, though he didn't meet her eyes directly.

"Sorry foxy, but Mama Wolf's worried about her pups and on the warpath! So I'd say out her way!" Mr. Wolford called from behind the she-wolf, an arm wrapped around her waist as she drove. "Now if you don't mind…" he said jovially and waved at them while Mrs. Wolford leaned forward like some manic motorcycle racer and started to pass them.

"Hey, stop!" Judy shouted angrily, seeming more vexed than anything else by the wolf's maniacal segway driving skills that were as good or better than her own.

She leaned forward, Nick following suit, pushing their vehicle faster and catching up.

"You can't do that!" Judy shouted over, as they came up alongside the other segway, "They need to sort out their feelings for each other without _you_ making them go crazy!"

The she-wolf huffed like that was the stupidest idea she'd ever heard.

"Oh yes I can!" she shouted waving the court order at them again, "And they've already made their feelings for each other _abundantly_ clear." she said just as they all clearly heard a howling shout of 'She _**Likes**_ Me!' from the carriage they were chasing and Mrs. Wolford gave an exasperated eyeroll, pointing forward, "Their just being two love sick idiots now! This is the best thing for them! **Them** _and_ the Pack!"

"But!... But!" Judy stammered, seeming unsure of what to say for a second, "You're still making them go crazy! And parents shouldn't interfere with their kids love lives!"

"Oh and I suppose _your_ family wouldn't get involved in your love life?" the wolf said with a laughing bark, and Nick could _feel_ Judy shiver at the thought.

"N-No! They wouldn't!" Judy said defensively, shifting on Nick's shoulder and head uncertainly, as the wolf snorted disbelievingly.

"Fine! So they might! … A _lot_ …" Judy snapped, before leveling a figure at the wolf, "But that doesn't make it right! I wouldn't ever do that to my kits!"

" _Oh?_ " The she wolf turned her head giving Judy a penetrating glance, "Are you so sure _you_ wouldn't want what's best for _your_ kits? _Humm_ …" her sharp glance shifted to Nick and he gulped hard, suddenly terrified of this she-wolf.

 _She knows!_ Some instinctual part of him screamed in alarm at the wolf's piercing look, _She knows! She Knows I'm in love with Judy, She knows I want to start a family with her. I'm screwed!_ _ **Screwed**_ _! She_ _ **knows**_ _!_

Nick barely heard Judy's nearly incoherent stammering as his ears flattened themselves to his skull.

"I'll tell you what _Ms_. Hopps," the wolf said with a smile that turned Nick's blood cold with fear as she looked back at Judy, "Why don't you help me catch Ralph and Nadine and I'll see if I can't help you with a few of your… relationship *ehem* _frustrations…_ " she tapped her nose slyly, smiling wickedly at Judy, though her eyes glance ever so briefly at him, at a point right over his heart on his shirt, as she added, "I bet I know ' _somebunny'_ that loves you."

Nick's hackles stood on end just as Judy squeak-screeched, her legs going stiff and pushing down hard on his and sending their segway slewing for a second.

"Don't listen to the Evil She-Wolf!" Nick shouted in panic looking up at Judy again as she corrected the segway, "She's out to get Nadine and _You_ and…"

 _Your cute little tail_ , his mind added as the world's cutest little tail bobbed right in front of his eyes suddenly and thoroughly entrancing him just as her scent sledge hammered him again, even stronger than it was before.

Nick was literally knocked out of his stunned state as the two segways collided, their wheel rims squealing against each other.

"You Can't call a Bunny _Cute_!" Judy nearly screamed, her voice almost vibrating like some angry embarrassed hornet.

"What? I'm just repeating what _he_ said!" Snickered a wolf's voice, "Now, help or get out of the way before that 'cute little tail' of yours gets hurt!"

Nick froze as there was an unintelligible sound of pure embarrassment that might have been Judy or might have been him, just before the two segway's collided again.

* * *

Nadine had kissed Ralph to shut him up, but his jubilance and joy bled over into the kiss and before she new it she was being kissed, and then kissing him back. Her heart hammering, nearly beating out of her chest as the kiss went on and on, her paws holding her wolf close to her, unwilling to let go.

"Dude!" one of the zebras muttered, "Seriously?! Why does everyone have to make out during carriage rides?!"

"Because, Dufus," the other answered, "it's Valentine's day, and for the amount they're paying us for this ride, they can snog all they want, now _Pull_!"

Nadine blushed at the commentary and broke off the kiss before trying to hide by disappearing into the seat of the rickshaw. Her efforts though were foiled by Ralph.

"You _like_ me." He mumbled between breaths as he laid back against her.

Nadine grumbled noncommittally, lowering her head to rest on his shoulder. He didn't say it again, but she could _feel_ the word, that real L-word he was tip toeing around, in the way his smile pulled at his muzzle as he turned and nuzzled her.

"Fine," she grumbled into his neck quietly, arms still holding him close, "I 'like' you." His tail thumped even harder against her leg and Nadine could feel herself starting to blush furiously so she asked him a question to distract herself.

"Why are we heading to the concert?"

"Because," Ralph nuzzled her again, the motion making warm tingling feelings spark and flutter inside of her, "first, it's a Valentine's day concert by Gazelle and I'm taking the girl that I _like_ and that _likes_ me to it." She grumbled again nuzzling her nose deeper into the crook of his neck, "Second, if you remember what Clawhauser said to the Chief right before we ran, whatever is going down with Judy and Nick's mission will be going on at the concert and we should still be there to back them up. And third," he nuzzled her again and Nadine might have made a sound, just a small surprised sound, certainly not happy little mewing sigh, "because it will be packed and we should be able to lose my parents in the crowd,"

The mention of his parents made Nadine shiver and clutched him tighter.

"I am _not_ ready for that," Nadine groaned into Ralph's neck and she could feel him nodding.

"Ya, I agree. We need to have that 'talk' you promised first. Preferably _before_ our parents drag us off to get married."

One of the Zebras snickered under his breath as he pulled, nickering, "still afraid of their parents *snicker* now _that's_ funny…"

"Hey!" Ralph snapped his ears going back, "It's _not_ funny! You try having an alpha as your mother and see how funny it is!"

"Pfftttt!" The zebra snorted, before shaking his head, "No thanks! I'll leave you wolves with your pack silliness and just sit back and laugh at you all! All reasonable mammal's know herds are the way to go anyway!"

There was a metal on metal screeching sound that silenced the Zebra's snickering, followed by shouts and Nadine cringed while Ralph went ridged. One of those voices had sounded an awful lot like Ralph's mother's.

Almost unwillingly, Nadine looked around the side of the carriage to were both zebras were glancing back to and then wished she hadn't.

"Well, that's my boyfriend's mother," Nadine managed to say, and was surprised at how calm her voice sounded, "and if you don't want to find out just how 'not funny' she is then I'd suggest you _pull_ **Faster**!"

* * *

The old goat cracked his back before sitting down on the bench, only for his wife to laugh and poke him.

"I told you, you should have brought that cane Russell got you for your birthday," she said with a smile as he grumbled.

"I'm not so old yet that I need a walking cane to get around Ellie!" he said indignantly turning up his chin and adjusting his square glasses, "Especially not after Dug put tennis balls on the bottom of it!"

"I thought it made that cane look athletic." The nannygoat chuckled and he huffed, trying not to smile.

"The next thing you know, instead of us helping those young whippersnappers out with their Ranger scout group, they'll all be trying to help us cross the street!"

"Well, who said streets can't be dangerous adventures all on their own," the Nanny goat said teasingly, "who knows when us old adventures might need some help from younger ones to cross those treacherous expanses!"

"You're not old Ellie!" he huffed standing up determinedly, "and there's no street to ' _dangerous'_ that us young hearted adventures couldn't handle!" he said striking a confident pose… only to wince as his hip to let out a crack of protest.

There was a squeal of tires, and the old goat rubbing at the joint looked down the street only for his eyes to widen at the sight of one of the parks valentine's day rickshaws come skidding around the corner.

He let out a startled bleat, and only barely managing to hobble/jump out of the way as the two Zebra's thundered past, the carriage clattering along in their wake, someone shouting, "FASTER, _FASTER_! Or they'll catch **UP**!"

The goat shook his head for a second to clear it as he started sitting up, then blinked in astonishment, pointed to the sky.

"Balloons! See that Ellie!" he shouted excitedly, pointing emphatically at the cluster of balloons with two mammals clinging to them and, apparently, eating cotton candy as it started lazily passing across the street "I told you that fortuneteller said _balloons_ not lagoons!"

"One adventure at a time Carl! Watch the street!" She shouted worriedly just as there was more squealing sounds and shouts from the direction the carriage had come from.

"That wedding is _**going**_ to happen! *Growl* Now get out of my way CUTIE-TAIL!" _CLANG- SQUEAL_

" **AGHHH!** _ **NO**_! You _Evil_ Matchmaking **Fiend**! AND STOP CALLING ME THAT! You _**don't**_ know what's best for them!"

"JUDY! _**AHEAD**_!"

"I- oh Carrot Sticks! NICK, Take the Controls!"

The goat looked up just in time to see two segways bearing down on him, only for the bunny on one of the large vehicles to swing over to the second flipping like a acrobat, and grabbing the control bar, twisting it, before she lost her grip and went spinning off; the segway the bunny had jumped from started going out of control while the fox riding on it scrambled up the central post.

The goat cringed as the segways veered off in opposite directions, both barely missing him, followed by skidding and crashing sounds as well as a ' _Uffffft_!' loud enough he heard it clearly without his stupid hearing aid. Turning around, he saw the two segways skidding to a stop along the road, two wolves sticking tail first out of a large pile of stuffed animal prizes they'd knocked over from one game stand while the fox was spread eagled against the pot belly of a big brown bear running another stand on the other side of the street.

The bear looked down at the fox with a confused expression as the fox slid off the bear's belly and hit the ground with a groan.

Grumbling about the hooligans these days, the old goat started getting up only for the little bunny to come running up to him.

"Sir! Sir? Are you alright? Here let me help you." and before he knew it or could complain the little bunny was ushering him across the street.

"Wait! I don't need any help!-" He started saying only to find himself back at the bench next to his grinning wife, the bunny already running off in the direction of the segways that the wolves scrambling out of the pile of prizes were aiming for.

He stared after her and almost wishing that he had the silly cane with him just so he could shake it at all of them.

His wife patted his leg comfortingly, her voice full of amusement as she asked, "Now, what was that about not needing help across the street?"

* * *

"You okay?" the bear looking down at Nick asked.

Nick replied with a noncommittal groan, then raising a shaky paw and gave the bear a thumbs up.

"Ya… I think so…"

His head was still spinning a bit. He'd managed to grab the controls of the segway and veering it away from the goat they'd almost hit, only to completely lose control as he'd dangled from the handles and the segway toppled, spinning out and sending him flying.

"Thanks for breaking my fall…" Nick muttered, sitting up and looked around only to see Judy chasing after the wolves as they ran toward the down segways.

"NICK!" Judy hollered, "Their trying to take both! Stop Them!"

"What am I supposed to do?!" Nick shouted back, though he quickly started getting up to futilely chase after them. The wolves and Judy were too far ahead for him to get there in time, and it wasn't like he had his tranq pistol or anything… Nick stopped and looked back at the sign over the game stall the bear was manning.

'3 shots for a $1, Hit the target to Win!'

* * *

Judy was running as hard as she could, but Mr. Wolford had already reached the first segway and was righting it while Mrs. Wolford raced for the other.

" _NICKKK!_ " Judy yelled again right before there was a _POP_ and a cork bounced off Mr. Wolford's head sending him toppling forward.

"Whoot! Got it on the first shot!" Nick yelled and Judy glanced at him just long enough to see him reloading the cork gun at one of the game stalls and take aim at the she-wolf who was growling as she picked up the other segway.

 _POP_

The wolf ducked and the cork bounced of the handle bars. There was a curse from Nick but the she wolf was already leaning forward, the segway starting to pick up speed.

Judy leap in a flat dive, just as there was another _POP_ and managed to grab onto the wolf's tail flapping out behind her, only to yelp as the cork buzzed her own tail and ricocheted off her back.

" **NICK**!" she shouted indignantly only to get a fading "Sorry!" as she and Mrs. Wolford sped away.

* * *

"Opps!" Nick muttered as the cork bounced off the heart shaped sticker on Judy's back and clipped the wolf's ear.

Nick cupped his paw around his muzzle hollering, "Sorry!" as Judy's indignant shout drowned out the wolves annoyed growl.

"Well, that's not _quite_ how the games supposed to be played…" the bear said scratching his head before reaching over and grabbing one of the myriad prizes along the wall, "But you got two out of three, and maybe this will help you make it up to your 'Foxy Lady'." He said handing Nick a stuffed smiling carrot almost as big as he was.

"Thanks." Nick said, slapping down a dollar and taking the stuffed carrot before running toward where the Mr. Wolford was getting up off the ground and shaking his head.

"Hey! No stealing our segway!" Nick shouted running at the wolf, gripping the stuffed carrot in both paws, "We only burrowed that!", he swung the carrot just like Finnick had taught him with all those hours at the batting cages, grip tight but not too tight, swing carrying through with the shoulders and hips not just the arms.

 _POOFT!_

The larger end of the stuffed carrot toy smacked into the wolf's muzzle and he yelped, sitting back on his hunches in surprise as Nick jumped onto the segway… and realized he was too short to drive it.

"Did wu just wack me wid a twoay cawwot?!" the wolf on his haunches asked, holding his nose though he sounded more surprised than hurt.

Nick turned back to the wolf, lifting The Carrot threateningly.

"Yes, Yes I did, now you're going to drive this segway so I can catch up to my partner or I'll whack you with it again!"

* * *

"Get Off My TAIL!"

"Get Off My SEGWAY" Judy shouted back and clung on tighter, only to yelp as Mrs. Wolford reached back and grabbed her tail, trying to yank her off.

"Hey! OWW! Tug on my tail again and I'll bite yours!" Judy threatened showing her large nashers to the wolf. The tugging immediately stopped though she didn't let go.

"You bite my tail and I'll make sure your fox doesn't find your little tuft so _cute_ anymore!" She snarled back threateningly.

"Hey! Leave Nick out of this!" Judy shouted back blushing hard, and trying to figure how to get herself out of this standoff… biteoff? and she couldn't believe Nick had _said_ that about her tail! "And stop. Saying. THAT. _WORD!_ "

"Why? You didn't seem to have an issue when _your_ fox said it!" The she-wolf said pointedly, still clutching Judy with one paw even as she whipped the segway onto another street in the park, trying to catch up to the carriage.

"He said it in jest! And only Nick is allowed to joke with me like that!" Judy snapped trying to fight her raging blush and hold back her temper at the same time.

"Joke?!" The Wolf laughed, and continued like she scented wounded prey, "Girl, that was no _joke_! By Balto's beard! Have you been taking dating lessons from my son because you're being almost as idiotic as he is!"

"I- Want!? NO! Its Not LIKE That! Nick _Always_ jokes like that!" Judy nearly screamed, her frustration seeming to boil over and she reached back and with a precise punch to the nerve cluster in the wolfs paw managed to get her to let go.

"OWW! Hey!" The Mrs. Wolford shook her hand, then tried to grab her again, while Judy still clinging to her tail with one paw tried to stop her.

The fight, if it could be called that, quickly devolved into a odd one pawed slap fest as Judy tried to fend off the Wolf's paw without losing her grip on her tail and falling off.

"Stop being an Idiot and get off so I can go stop my son from being an idiot!"

"I'm not an Idiot! And neither is Ralph! You're messing things up between him and Nadine!"

"Oh yes you are! You're just another lovesick idiot like those two that needs someone to straighten you out!

"I. **Am.** _**NOT**_!" Judy hollered, slapping the wolf's paw away again.

Judy was holding her own physically but her emotions and temper were frayed and she felt like she was losing ground on the verbal battlefield, just like she was losing control of her blush. The she-wolf's voice was just _so_ vexingly know it all-ish and every word she said seemed to jab at her, wearing at her that much more.

"Girl you don't think I can't _smell_ how much of a love sick idiot you are?! All that sexual arousal and frustration and **worry,** _hum?_ "

" _WHAT?! I, You, –_ _ **WHAT?**_ _!_ " Judy's voice was more of a screech and distracted as she was, she failed to stop the wolf from getting a grip on her and yanking her off her tail.

The wolf laughed again holding Judy up in front of her, "I almost feel sorry for you! You and that fox! He smelled like he was in even worse shape than you! Why he's probably been following you around all winter, scent drunk on your smell and too idiotic to tell you how he feels."

"I- WHAT?! _**NO**_!" Judy exploded, She wasn't sure if it was the fact that the wolf had gotten the best of her and was now holding her nearly helplessly by the scruff of the neck, or that her jibes were like hammer blows to her heart, or if it was that she wanted to believe that what the wolf was saying was more than just an attempt to infuriate her (which was totally succeeding) and make her screw up like she had. She could feel hot tears, a mix of rage and heartbreak as she flailed and shouted uselessly for a second. "You Don't KNOW **ANYTHING!** I might like HIM but _HE_ Likes SOME _**STUPID**_ **FOXY LADY!** HE's _told_ me so!"

The she wolf rolled her eyes in an infuriatingly patronizing way and Judy tried kicking that look right off her face, and nearly managed it. Nearly.

Mrs. Wolford pull her muzzle back just in the nick of time, sending the segway careening for a second before she recovered. Judy For her part only had the satisfaction of a single moment of seeing the surprised look on the she-wolf's face before the force of her kick and the careening segway sent her flipping back and forth as she hung in the wolf's grip.

The she-wolf's face came back into view as her motion dampened out, and the look of stunned shock on the wolf's face felt vindictively pleasing in her maddened state… right until the wolf laughed uproariously.

"Foxy! Lady?!" She barely managed to get out between laughs, as Judy looked at her stunned, "Oh you are hopeless! You poor little bunny!" Mrs. Wolford laughed again and turned her head, whipping a few tears of mirth off and her shoulder before looking back at the street and then to Judy.

"You think I'm some sort of fiendish matchmaker sticking my nose where it doesn't belong? Well I'll tell you what, since you're a friend of Ralph's, if you _help_ me nab my runaway pups, I'll help _you_ get that fox you're so obviously in love with. I can _**Guarantee**_ it. No _stupid_ 'Foxy Lady' is a match for this 'Matchmaker'!" She said with a nearly feral grin and laugh.

Judy just gaped at the wolf for a second as she hung there by her scruff. The she-wolf had been rubbing her the wrong way since she'd meet her, what with her excruciatingly irritating with a self-righteous manner, but she also seemed _so_ carrot be damned _confident_ in her assertion.

 _What if what she says is right? What if she_ _ **could**_ _get me Nick?_ Judy thought, her heart seeming to stop for a second.

 _That would be like stealing him!_ Part of Judy's mind object to the thought of pulling Nick's affection away from his stupid foxy lady, though another part of her mind couldn't help screaming _MY FOX! Feed that foxy lady to this she-wolf!_ and it was a part of her mind that she was having more and more trouble controlling, no matter how wrong she felt it was to try stealing him away.

That little voice in her mind telling her not to be selfish, was being buried under her longing, her want, her _need_ … She'd wanted today to be a special day just for Nick and her, a day she could look back on and remember when she finally, inevitably lost him to that vixen. But every moment together here today had been making it that much harder to let him go. From that frightful moment in the coffee shop holding him, to all the fun she'd had with him on the rollercoasters and the pictures, to that moment on the love boat, where he'd held her, comforted her, then nearly drove her mad with his teasing and his 'you know you love me,' until she'd finally broken and wanted to wallop _and_ kiss him.

All of it, from his voice, to the way his fur felt every time she'd snuck the chance to touch him, it all bore down on her, against that part of her trying to be a good upright non-love-stealing bunny.

 _And what if the Mrs. Wolford's right and he does have some feelings for you too… it's not really stealing if he likes you too…_

 _That's more the definition of stealing!_

 _It's only stealing if he and that vixen were already together…_ the thought was wicked and seductive, and Judy couldn't help thinking back on how Nick had said she wasn't interested, how that still enraged her; A vixen like that didn't deserve his love…

 _But Nick_ _ **does**_ _Love her, he's even admitted it!_ _ **Nick**_ _the 'never_ _admit_ _anything'_ _actually_ _**admitted**_ _it! How is that not stealing his love?_

 _Ahhh… but would he admit it if he had feelings for you too? Feelings more than just platonic love? It's possible, you were even going to ask him tomorrow because you don't know for sure. (that, and Nadine will rip you a new one if you keep assuming…)_ The thoughts seemed to slowly eat away at all the reasons, all the logic that was telling her it was a _bad_ idea. She new they were ideas based on her deepest darkest secret wishes but she couldn't help how much she wanted them. _You don't know… and there was the way he blushed too, back at the food court when he was trying to protect you… you don't know and it's possible..._ the thoughts seemed to whisper at her, digging into her mind, … _all you need is for that to be possible…_

 _Even if he does have some small feelings for me, he_ _ **loves**_ _that stupid vixen! It would still be stealing!_

 _No… That's just_ _ **competing**_ _for his love… that's different than stealing_

"How?" Judy asked before she even realized she'd responded to Mrs. Wolford.

The she-wolf grinned. A terrifyingly wolfish grin.

"Well, I would start by having you and your fox be the bridesmaid and groomsman at the wedding. 'Matchmaker' that I am, getting the bridal bouquet to land in your paws will be a cinch and that's only the start. I'll have him dumping this _idiotic_ 'Foxy Lady' for you before the reception is even over."

* * *

"Are you sure there isn't a way we could work this out like reasonable mammals?" Mr. Wolford asked as he drove the segway, a note of what might just possibly be amusement in his voice.

"Quiet you! I've got a carrot and I know how to use it!" Nick said from behind him, holding the carrot like a big fluffy orange rifle and jabbed the wolf in the back with the pointy end… which deflated slightly as it nudged the wolf forward.

"Anyway, Bogo ordered us to watch over Nadine and you and Mrs. Wolford seem to be the prime reason at the moment that she might lose it again, so no. I don't see how we can work this out."

"We do have a court order, requiring their attendance at the wedding." Mr. Wolford said calmlly as he turned onto another street and Nick spotted the other segway up ahead.

"An order which hasn't been served yet," Nick countered, giving the wolf another poke with the carrot just incase he thought he could get uppity with him.

"Sure… but you all are cops, right? Isn't it your duty to help us serve that court order?" he asked and Nick mulled that over for a second.

"I'm pretty sure public safety takes precedence over helping you serve that court order." He replied after a second, then frowned. Judy looked like she might be in trouble considering how the she-wolf seemed to have hold of her. Nick poked Mr. Wolford again, this time a bit harder.

"Hurry up, that doesn't look good." He said a bit of hardness edging his voice as he saw that Judy was being held by the scruff of the neck with her ears down and arms crossed in a not happy at all rabbit sort of way. Mr. Wolford leaned forward on the segway speeding up.

"Okay, but what if Naddy had a bit of time to calm down? She and Ralph have been together long enough that she should understand how the pack works, well generally at least. This wedding _has_ to happen, and it has to happen _tomorrow_. I'm sure _you_ understand why."

"Foxes don't do packs," Nick said flatly, eyes glued on Judy. His hackles finally lowered as they got close enough for him to read her expression. She was mad, visibly so, but more like a cross between someone beat me in the ring and Bogo just assigned us Parking Duty. Judy opened her mouth saying something to the Mrs. Wolford and Nick could feel his whole body relaxed a bit as it became apparent the two were not on the verge of brawling on the moving segway again. "but yes," he added, "I have an idea why it might be important."

Nick shrugged before continuing, "I think you should just leave them be for the rest of the day… and night, certainly don't mess with them tonight I expect they'll be busy. Just corner them, *ehem* talk to them in the morning." Nick thought for a second before adding, "and if you really want to get on Nadine's good side, bring them breakfast."

"That… might not be the best idea…" Mr. Wolford winced, "It could be taken the wrong way, new wolf couple and all, um, tiger-wolf couple? You know…"

Nick rolled his eyes, "Right, you wolves have that funny thing about food. Well bring them coffee in the morning at least. Nadine can be a bit snarly when she doesn't gets her morning joe at the precinct. Coffee isn't food, and if you really need to be pedantic about it, then call it a deliver and have them pay for it."

Mr. Wolford glanced back at Nick giving him an appraising look, "You sure foxes don't do packs? You seem like you'd be awfully good at it."

"Have to know them to be able to hustle them," Nick shrugged, "I'm sure you've heard from Ralph about my past."

"Uh-huh, and what are you trying to hustle out of me right now, Mr. Wilde?" the wolf asked acutely, then followed his gaze to where he was looking.

"Oh, _oh_! Well, I'm sure I can get my wife to release her," Mr. Wolford said with a laugh that had Nick's ears snapping back and his chest vibrating with a warning growl. The wolf, still grinning, raised one paw in a surrender motion. "Now now, no need for that. I'm sure you could trade my safe return for her. Cassy wouldn't want me getting carroted after all!" The wolf snickered as Nick jabbed the carrot into his back again before looked over his shoulder the smaller fox, his expression turning more discerning.

"You know… you really should just tell her…"

" _That_ , is none of your business!" Nick snapped and the wolf shrugged.

"Right, right. Forgot, you foxes have that funny thing about courting. Well best of luck with that, though if it helps, I'm pretty sure she does like you." he said and tapped his nose.

Nick hadn't thought it was possible to blush and growl at the same time, but he sure as hell managed it.

* * *

"And there off to the rails again!" Skye said in an announcer's voice using the cotton candy cone as a mock microphone as they floated along above and watched the chaos unfold below them.

"Little Miss Bunny and Mama Wolf Jockeying for control, Wolfeyer now with a comfortable 20 lengths lead, Papa Wolf's back on his feet after an his stumbling the restart, but here comes Wilde Times and oOHH! Papa Wolf's down again, Wilde Times passing him! Wolfeyer still in the lead, taking the final turn and entering the straight away to the gates, but it looks like they're zebra's are flagging! Papa Wolf, what a turn! Now being herder by WIlde Times! Mama Wolf and Little Miss Bunny starting to make up ground, fighting hard! What a _Tail_ fight! Mama Wolf takes the lead! No, Little Miss Bunny, No! Mama Wolf! Its Neck and Neck as the round the final turn!"

Jack was trying not to snicker to loudly at Skye's commentary. She turned her head back for a second looking behind them.

"Buffalo Bess and Chief Bull still in the backfield but gaining ground, oh and it looks like we have some new contestants!" Skye said with glee and Jack saw some of the other park security guards, some of which were gaping open mouthed at them as they floated along under his multicolored bundle of heart shaped balloons, others who were gesticulating wildly and taking off after them.

"Thank goodness we can classify Bogo's little help request as a mission," Jack snickered, pulling out his phone with his free paw and typing off a message, "It is for the safety of Zootopia of course, but I can't _wait_ to see how our boss explains this to the park security." He clicked the send button and started counting.

He made it to 6 before his phone pinged with an incoming message.

'You did _What?_ '

Another ping.

'You two better have a damned good reason this time. Hold on, I'll get in contact with them and explain… something.'

"Well that should take care of any hissy fits from the park security at least." Jack said just as his phone pinged again.

He read the message then turned to Skye.

"Agent U kindly asks that you, ehem, _Make sure that rash reckless problem causing partner of yours doesn't cause anymore 'incidents' for at least the rest of the day._ "

Their was a snicker from Skye as she took a bite of the cotton candy and offered it to him.

"Why I do believe that our demure little boss might have some plans for tonight!" she said gleefully as Jack tried to take a bite of the cotton candy and she pulled it away teasingly before feeding him a bite, then whispered sotto voce, "Best we better not interrupt that, did you hear the rumors of what she did to that assassin that interrupted her last date night? I mean, how is it even possible to stuff a wallaby into their own pouch?!"

"Yaa… we might want to avoid that, us being pouchless and all, and speaking of avoiding things, we might want to start getting ready to land if we want to avoid flying right over the concert hall."

"Right you are, we've got some dancing to do!" Skye said with a terrifying amount of enthusiasm. And then looked up at the balloons above them.

"Blue is a ridiculous color for a heart shaped balloon anyway," she said and reached out, using her claw to sever one of the balloon lines tied to his belt. "why would anyone want to be _blue_ on valentine's day? And that shade of pink is just too gaudy!" she cut another line and Jack felt them starting to descend.

* * *

"Return the Bunny and nobody gets hurt!" Nick shouted as they pulled up alongside the other segway and brandished his stuffed carrot threateningly.

"What this _cute_ little thing?" Mrs. Wolford said holding Judy, who had a rather sour look on her face.

"Don't Call her _CUTE_!" Nick shouted his hackles rising defensively, "You can't call bunnies cute!"

The she-wolf laughed before, smirking back at Judy, who surprisingly, had stayed quiet.

"Well bunny girl, do we have a deal?" she asked, her grin showing of quite a few teeth.

Judy's eyes narrowed slightly and she bit out, "I'm still not going to let you mess with Nadine and Ralph right now. You have her too worked up."

The she wolf huffed and rolled her eyes, "Well, if I get to them first, it doesn't matter."

She turned back to Nick and shouted, "Here, you _want_ her, you take her!" and she dropped Judy on the control bars and leapt across to their segway shouting back, "See you tomorrow bunny girl!"

"JUDY!" Nick yelled as the segway she was on started to go out of control. He swung his stuffed carrot at the she-wolf but she caught the toy. Nick though, just scrambling up it like it was a rope, before jumping onto the control panel of the segway in front of Mr. Wolford, and taking just a moment to set himself, and snag the vehicle's key, jumped over to Judy's segway as she tried to regain control of it.

Nick wobbled for a second on his landing but recovered and grabbed for Judy's feet, helping her steady herself.

"GO, GO, _GO!_ " Nick shouted just as there was a shout from the the wolves as it started falling behind, their vehicle only coasting now.

"What did you do Nick?" Judy asked perplexed as she glanced back at the now not so smug she-wolf angrily shaking the stuffed carrot at them as they made their escape.

"Oh nothing much, just made a bit of a trade," He said spinning the key around on his claw for a second, before looking back a bit morosely at the fading segway behind them, "Sorry though Carrots, I was going to give that to you that stuffed carrot to apologize for that last shot," he held up the key to Judy, "Will this do instead?"

Judy took the key, staring at it for a second before laughing.

"You sly hustling fox!" she said and laughed again, the sound doing wonders for the worry and concern that had been eating at him for the last few minutes he'd been apart from Judy.

"Okay slick, let's catch up Nadine and Ralph and make sure they're alright. We might even still have time to make it to the concert after all of this!" She said jubilantly and Nick smiled at the quick return of her exuberance. He hadn't liked the expression Judy's had when she'd been talking to Mrs. Wolford. His bunny was supposed to be bright and happy, and seeing her any other way just felt… wrong.

"Right-o Fluff," he said, then grinned, "but if we're still going to the concert, I want you to try out my dance moves instead of your hip-hop nonsense."

* * *

The rickshaw squealed to a stop in front of the gates to the stadium where the roar from the crowd and the concert could easily be heard and the two zebra's nearly collapsed.

"Can't believe. Chased. By wolves. Ridiculous." One of them panted as Nadine scurried out of the carriage pulling Ralph behind her.

"I think we lost them." Nadine said looking around, her heart finally starting to settle down. Only to jump straight up in the air with a startled yowl as a segway pulled to a stop next to them.

"Gahhh!- _Judy_?!" Nadine poked her head up from behind Ralph were she'd tried to hide, then frowned. Not because of Judy but because of why she was hiding behind Ralph and the absurdity of it. She was bigger than him and she didn't hide from anything! … except her parents… and now that she considered it, Ralph's parents too.

 _Might want to find a better hiding spot_ _ **before**_ _his parents show up again._ Nadine caught Ralph glancing at her, his eyes an intense bright gold that didn't seem like they wanted to look anywhere else while his tail still wagged in a giddy fashion. For that matter she notice that he still had her paw in his and seemed absolutely unwilling to let it go.

"Judy, Nick!" Ralph said looking over at them and giving them a cheery wave as he moved closer to her side. "Good to see you survived meeting my parents too." The press of Ralph against her and the way he glanced back at her, eyes still that wolfishly bright gold made her heart pick up again, and Nadine realized that she'd only just escaped one fire to run right into another.

 _He's going to want an answer,_ she thought with a stomach dropping, heart wrenching fright that was worse than the rollercoasters, _He's going to want that explanation about the mark and I'm not going to be able to stall much longer…_

Nadine's thoughts were interrupted as jack and Skye came casually floating down to land a few feet away, before Jack pulled some sort of knot at his belt and all the balloons above them went lazily floating away.

"Hey everyone!" Skye beamed, waving a cotton candy cone and taking a bite from it as she walked past with Jack grinning fit to burst, "Better hurry up and get out of here, we saw Bogo and your parents not too far back."

Nadine yelped again, looking back down the road. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place but she knew which she feared more.

"Wait up!" Nadine shouted, and still holding Ralph's paw chased after the two into the concert.

* * *

"Well, looks like we'll get to see most of the concert after all," Nick said to Judy as he watched the wide eyed Nadine turn and hurry into the stadium dragging Ralph behind her.

Judy gave him a half hearted smile as she turned to follow, and the little bit of worry in Nick from before came back again. With the adrenalin of the chase fading it was becoming more apparent that something was bugging her, and he didn't know what. Well more exactly he didn't know what of a dozen different things from the past half hour might be bugging her.

 _She could still be upset over the tail thing on the boat, or that gods be damned news broadcast, or…_ Nick started mentally ticking off possibilities, trying to figure out what was the source of his bunnies droopy ears while he fell into step besides her, _or that Wildehopps thing, or how I called her tail cute,_ he cringed a bit at that slip up. He liked to tease her with that word but teasing had to be done right and that had just been him blurting it out.

 _Then again maybe it was that Mrs. Wolford_ , Nick thought hopefully thinking of how she'd gotten the better of Judy in their scuffle. If there was one thing Judy hated, it was to lose. And while the idea that it was Mrs. Woldord that had put judy into this despondent mood made him bristle protectively, Nick couldn't help hoping, just a bit, that she had been the cause, _because then it's not because of something I did…_

Thinking back on it as they made their way through the security check at the concert and into the packed stadium, Nick remembered that wolfish smirk Mrs. Wolford had on and what she'd asked Judy.

Skye and Jack had broken off and were headed in there own direction and Judy was following after Nadine and Ralph, probably he thought, so that she could keep an eye on Nadine like Bogo had ordered. But even as they made their way through the cheering crowd as Gazelle finished one song and the band began setting up for another, she still didn't look a fraction as cheerful as she should have been, _especially_ at a live Gazelle concert. His bunny should have practically been bouncing of the walls with excitement.

Nick's mouth narrowed a bit as he watched and became more concerned. He mulled over his thoughts of why again and finally decided that it was best to just go ahead and ask her. Judy was always better at handling things front on, she just needed some help getting started sometimes.

Making sure he didn't seem to be looking at her (while watching her minutely) Nick bumped her hip.

"Hey Fluff, what's the matter?"

Judy looked up at him and put on a smile that he could easily tell was forced.

"Nothing, why do you think something's the matter?" she said too brightly and he stopped turning to her and raising his eyebrow.

"Because we're at a Gazelle concert and your ears aren't trying to fly of your head."

She reached back, self consciously, to feel her ears still hanging down behind her and then looked chagrined.

"oh…" she looked back and him and Nick raised his other eyebrow as well, "It's really nothing Nick," she said looking down and away, "Mrs. Wolford just… just…"

Judy had a look of such confliction on her face that he wanted to reach out and hug her. He almost did, but then decided to bump her hip again, and grinned at her.

"She's a willy old dog isn't she? Quite the alpha bitch eh?" he said waggling his eyebrows as Judy looked up with a shocked, "Nick!"

She looked around, before hissing at him, "You shouldn't call wolves that!"

"Well, she stole my Carrots so I think it's fair." Nick said crossing his arms and turning his nose up, though he was grinning just a bit now.

"I thought you said you used your traded your carrot for their keys," Judy said back with a light smack, and Nick had the slightest momentary bit of panic before he recovered.

"Right, so I did. Traded that carrot for their keys, quite a nice little hustle of a deal if I do say so myself," he nodded as if patting himself on the back, and Judy let out a small but real laugh.

"Stop congratulating yourself for that Slick, now come on we need to keep a close eye on Nadine right now," she grabbed his paw and pulled him along, her ears a bit more perky than they were before.

"and Nick," Judy looked back at him for the briefest moment, before continuing in an almost shy voice, "Thanks for always being there to cheer me up."

"Always Carrots." Nick said smiling and then squeezed her paw just as the next song started up and Judy hopped in place fist bumping the air.

"This is one of my _Favorites_!" She pulled Nick into a open gap where she could see the stage and Nadine, who'd pulled Ralph over to the side in a quieter spot.

"You say that about ever Gazelle song," Nick commented blandly before smiling.

"Well they all are!" Judy said before cheering with the crowd,and giving him a smile, "And I'm not going to let that big bad wolf can keep me from enjoying this concert!"

"Apparently not," Nick smirked seeing Judy ramp back up to the over the top enthusiastic bunny he'd come to love, then shook his head in amusement, "Not even the biggest baddest wolf of them all, though, I have to admit I'm curious as to what that deal she was talking about was. She looked mighty confident about it." Judy froze mid hop at his musings, her ears looking like they might _actually_ manage to go flying off.

Surprised, Nick reacted more on reflex and his arm shot out grabbing Judy as she landed off balance, inadvertently pulling her against him as he tried to stop her fall.

Judy looked up from within the circle of his arms and into his concerned face, a bit wide eyed and muttered, " _Deal?!_ I d-didn't take any deal!"

* * *

A/N

…

One more Chapter to go. Check back for:

Chapter 15 - IT'S A TRAP!

...

Operations Clock: 7 hours

...

Secret Squirrel Division Report:

StarFang's Secrets - The squirrels were going to raid her for ideas but she was so nice that she offered to help them. Seriously HUGE Thanks to Starfang for tons of editing help! The squirrels owe you one star!

Squirrels heard that there were free peanuts at a viewing of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and may have brought back ideas from this - something about the 'Chariot Chase scene'

Cimar of Wildehopps Turalis - Squirrels gave him a couple of beers then secretly studied him to figure out how to write slurred speech, then stole his 'twoay cawwot'

MinscLovesBoo- the squirrels tried raiding him again but he was apparently prepared this time and just handed the ideas over with a sigh and told them to get out.

Squirrels also stopped by 'UP' to take pictures with Carl and Ellie

...

Who can say if we shall ever see the Fox and Bunny Kiss?

Well all mammal wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.'

-'Jack' Alexandre Dumas, The Savage Count of Monte Cristo

...

(Why that quote you ask my dear foolish friends whom I delight in tormenting with my Grinchy ways?

Because even if it takes 21 years to tunnel out of a prison and meet a bunch of pirates to hatch a conspiratorial plan to make it happen, I will get my way!

THE BUNNY AND FOX MUST KISS)


	15. Chapter 15 Teaser -Concerts & Conspiracy

**.**

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: 7 hours

...

Disclaimer:

Wham… WHAM… _Wham_!

A sailor leans over to a nearby officer and whispers.

"Sir do you… do you think the capt'n's, um, alright?"

 _Wham!_

"I mean, that was brutal. Never seen anyone lose it like the capt'n there when he saw that passenger we picked up. I mean he went completely bonkers."

WHAM!

Officer shakes his head.

"Sailor, you don't understand, that beeping…" shakes head again. "That infernal beeping would cause anyone to go bonkers. I don't blame the captain for what he did to that grinch. At least we won't have to deal with him again."

"Sir, I don't mean that, I understand why the captain keel hauled him, then left him for the sharks. _It does let us appease the Great and Mighty Disney for blatantly stealing_ _Zootopia characters wholly owned, copyrighted and trademarked by them_ _for our own purposes and using them in such things as silly little fanfics…_ Besides he scared the pants off us with that recorded beeping sound. Though I don't get why the grinch thought that was so funny…" The sailor scratched his head then shrugged, "I get we had to do that to find out where he hid the real Fluff nuke and all anyway, so I get all that… but this…"

 _WHAM!_

The sailor winces at the sounds of sledgehammer breaking rock and angry curses.

Wham! WHAM!

"Sailor, that grinch sold that nuke to a bunch of pirates. We had a hell of a time tracking them down and getting it back. The captain just needs to blow off some steam after all that, that's why we're here on this little deserted island."

 _WHAM!_

Both the sailor and officer winced.

"Aye Aye, sir… I get that the Capt'n might want to get his mad out… even if we had to detour to do it… but sir… do we even know why the Grinch traded the nuke to the pirates in exchange for a statue of himself?"

Sailor gestures to the remains of the stone statue the captain was demolishing with a sledgehammer.

 _WHAM!_

'And take THAT!' _WHAM!_ 'and _That!_ ' _WHAM!_ 'This is for my first ship!' _WHAM!_ 'I hope you rot in Davy Jones' Locker!' _WHAM!_

The captain screamed more curses as he hammered away some more. The officer shrugged, watching the captain.

"Who knows, that grinch might just have just been a crazy Fluff obsessed egomaniac."

"True… true… it's probably for the best that he's gone… um, you _are_ sure he's gone right?" the sailor asked nervously, looking over to the side.

"Oh absolutely," the officer said, confidently nodding his head. "We got him, and got him good. We haven't even heard a peep in months from some of the other unfinished dastardly works he'd left behind. They all _look_ completely abandoned. No sailor, that Grinch is gone for good. The captain is even planning a celebratory feast tomorrow in honor of stopping that grinch from hijacking _our_ conspiracy."

"So… there's _no_ chance that this things purpose," the sailor gestures toward the statue remains, "might have been as a distraction?"

Officer starts to shrug again then stops.

"Wait… by distraction, do you mean like _a_ _trap_?" The officer shivered then glanced at the rather pale looking sailor, "Why on earth do you think _this_ is a trap?!"

Sailor points towards their ship anchored off the tiny little deserted island that once held a tall stone statue of a laughing grinch that was now no more than a brass plaque between two broken legs. A pile of rubble nearing the size of a mountain as the captain was smashing its remains with a sledgehammer.

"Because," the sailor said, going a little paler. "There's some guy that looks a lot like that grinch and is wearing a big pirate hat that's climbing up the anchor line…"

* * *

Chapter 15 Teaser – Concerts & Conspiracies

Finnick sat on the roof of his van, overlooking all that he saw before him, and was pleased.

"Hustle them _**Good**_ By Karma we will."

Zootopia lay out before him in all its bustling splendor from where he'd parked on one of the scenic overlook high up in the mountain side of western Tundratown.

Still pleased with himself for the part he'd played in taking that slap dash set of ideas Wilde's pack of over eager well-wishers had made for him and his bunny and hammering an actual _workable_ hustle out of it, Finnick sipped his beer, then frowned and glared at the bottle.

It was only root beer after all, you didn't go into a hustle drunk, certainly not with what he still had to do for this one tonight.

Overcomplicated was one word for it. Excessive was probably another. But then again, they _were_ trying to hustle Nick Wilde. And that bunny-cop was no slouch in the hustling department either. With a set like that as their targets it was go _Big_ or go home.

Zootopia lit up like a gem as the sun started to set.

The last rays of the day shimmering off the towers of steel and glass at the city's heart. Artificial lights coming to life to take up the slack as the heart of the city continued to beat, headless of the time of day. From there the fading light illuminated the Climate Wall between Tundratown and Sahara Square; shimmering on one side of the towering edifice as stupendously amounts of heat ripped out in visible waves, only for the light on the other side to glint off the breathtaking clouds off snow billowing forth as the city dumped massive amounts of diverted water from the mains into it while they did their inspections.

The Climate Wall was one of the modern marvels of mammalian engineering that made the city possible. It was truly a sight to see, _especially_ like it was now, operating at its peak designed output instead of the normal sedate, and yet still impressive, day to day operations.

Even after living in the city for so long, Finnick could still feel a sense of childlike wonder as he gazed out over it all and watched as the paws of mortal mammals and their constructions bent the titanic forces of nature to their will.

Finnick looked at his watch frowning slightly.

They were late.

 _Amateurs_.

Well if the plan fell through because they were late it wasn't his fault, and he'd already been paid. Rolling his eyes, he reached over to his phone shot off a quick message (WTF! W.R.U?) and then toggled the app for his vans speaker system, downing a bit more of his not-beer, beer.

 _What should I listen too?_

Street beats weren't right for this… if he wanted to listen to Gazelle he'd be at the concert… no this needed something to fit the occasion, something to fit the glorious view of all the efforts of his machinations, well maybe not _all_ his, but he was the one out here now in the middle of it now wasn't he?

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi by Carl Slothorff? No… Best not chance calling the attention of the gods to oneself when mortals fiddled with fate and fortune on such scales, otherwise he just might _Doom_ himself. He was superstitious like that.

Sergei Bearkofiev's Dance of the Knights? Finnick snickered to himself, Romeo and Juliet those two idiots might be, but he rather hopped they didn't die at the end of this, otherwise all this effort would be for naught. Finnick snickered. Better _not_ , it wouldn't be good luck.

He flicked through his list.

Ratikovsky's 1812 Overture was a classic, but they weren't to the fireworks just yet. He'd save that for if the two dunderheads actually kissed.

Then he saw it.

The perfect song for the occasion.

Finnick grinned selecting the track, and leaned back as his speaker system kicked on, the subwoofer making a dull _Thump_ that momentarily rocked his awesome van, with its awesome paint job, before settling into a still quiet awesomeness of the first few seconds of the track.

Finnick gazed out over the city past the Climate Wall and the huge Titanic sized iceberg beached on the sandy shores of Sahara Square that the rippling waves of heat were slowly but surely melting.

He had to give it to Mr. Big and his bears; chiseling that monstrosity loose and arranging for it to float down the polar straight only to land _right_ in front of the Palm Resort had been a feat worthy of the hustlers hall of fame. It had been like watching the perfectly thrown pitch in baseball, only on the scale of cities.

But his eyes didn't stop there. They continued onto the distant lights from The Pier amusement park which could just faintly be seen glistening off the water on the south end of Savanna Central.

Finnick downed the remainder of his root beer, flipped the old-fashioned glass bottle in his paw and caught it by the neck, only to proffer it like the baton of an orchestra conductor just as the first sounds of Wolfson Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries boomed out across his view and faint fireworks from the start of Gazelle's concert could just barely be seen all the way across the city.

Still sitting in a relaxed posture, Finnick casually swept his makeshift conductor's baton out to the south, quavering the baton upward with the rising orchestral music as the roiling waves of heat belched forth from the Wall across the sands of their mammal made desert.

He flicked his wrist as the music changed, growing, rising, his bottle baton seeming to sweep forth the snow being generated by the wall to lay it across the artificial tundra. Another change, another almost dismissively casual flick of his baton, a new rising set of strings on top the previous in the music and he looked away from the mammal made snow in search of grander forces to hustle to his whim.

Finnick reached out with his free paw, making a grasping upraised fist and the brass joined the strings as the music boomed forth, rising faster, louder, gaining momentum as he pulled forth with his paw like he was dragging the inshore winds out from the southeast before they reversed for the night; pulling the air over the heated sands of their little desert, pushing some of the heat spewing forth from the wall across the city center and into the already steamy mammal made jungles to the northwest were more diverted water from the mains had been raining continuously since earlier this afternoon.

Finnick stood up, brandishing his baton to the west were other sections of the orchestra would be, adding new notes to join the music while others dipped, only to come back stronger as he raised his free paw, the notes cycling, building upon themselves, rising higher and higher with his outstretched baton in one paw and conducting claws of his other, and the steam from water logged and heat filled forest homes of the Rainforest rose up as if on his command filling the already cloudy sky over the district.

The full orchestra was now playing, as Finnick conducted, and every time it sounded like the music had reached its peak and started to fall, he, their conductor would command it, raising his baton bringing the sections back strong, grander, and the clouds to the west continued to grow, rising ever higher into the sky at his urging.

Higher and higher, building with music, roiling and swelling, darkening with their gaining strength.

But as mighty a city as Zootopia and all the achievements of mammals were, it was but a dot on the face of the world; And natures season, Winter, reigned supreme outside of their tenuous control of their little artificial realm.

The rising clouds of heat laden water towered over the northwest of the city like mighty thunderheads, But they had gotten too big, too high, they had gone past their ability to control; they had entered the part of the sky where Nature's season held full sway.

Finnick made a swift motion to the side, releasing his control on the clouds before it was too late, then flicking his baton up, and new, deeper, heavy brass notes swept over the music shaming everything that had come before with their grander as he pointed toward the sky and the true winds higher up, filled with winter's icy fury, started to grab hold of the clouds, bending them under its might.

But a hustle wasn't about taking want you wanted by sheer force. It was about manipulating others to get what you wanted, sometimes to do what you couldn't.

The music thundering from his vans speakers seemed to have taken on a life of its own, and now Finnick didn't control it. it was too strong for that. So he directed it, _nudged_ it this way and that, urging it with his baton on one side and his outstretched paw on the other.

And the clouds over the city grabbed by nature's fury twisted, folded, gained in power with the music and changed into a true storm as the winters winds started pushing its newborn creation back toward tundratown.

Finnick grinned from his perch atop his van, conducting the music and the growing storm that was slowly starting to pick up speed.

Mr. Big's pitch with the iceberg _had_ been impressive, But Finnick was a true Hustler and it was his turn to take the mound.

The Music _Thundered_ , and Finnick gestured with his baton, feeling the rise of the icy wind, blown forth ahead of the out of control storm, bring with it the first flakes of natural snow.

He gestured with his paw, and a streak of lightning arced across the stormfront facing him, as if to express its rage and power; the music roaring, like the herald of this mighty storm he'd provoked.

Finnick gestured back at the town now before the storm, his baton moving, directing the music, almost seeming to direct the flow of mammals below him as they scamper to and fro preparing for the snow that would soon be unleashed upon them.

The countless snow plows and snow-tracked vehicles moving on the streets below, already working to keep the artificial snow from the mammal made construct from shutting them down, now seemed to positively scurry with effort and all other traffic started dwindling as mammals hurried into their homes to wait out nature's wrath. And Wrath and Fury it was, because the impressive sight of the snow billowing forth from the Climate Wall was dwarfed by the sheer size of what was now coming.

Finnick laughed, flicking his baton, and another lance of lightning arced between the descending clouds, the crackle of dispelling static on a scale beyond mammals meshing with his music announcing the blizzard that was coming like a furiously growing and unstoppable _avalanche_.

Finnick gesture with his paw and the music responded, the snowstorm lit with lightning, and mammals scampered.

He conducted the music, leading the orchestra with subtle skill; he gestured with his paw, directed the clouds, prodding them to follow his plans; He motioned with his impromptu baton, guiding a line of extra snow plows to work on the narrow deserted mountain road below his spot on the overlook in this nearly deserted part of the town.

A cough behind him broke the rhythm of his performance, and Finnick stopped, spinning angrily to see who had dared interrupt.

"You were supposed to be here, _Five_ rutting minutes ago, Koslov!" Finnick bit out irately. "You would have screwed up everything for plan J if you were much later."

The bear, his face at the same height as Finnick's even though he was standing on the roof of his van, gave a dismissive snort and mumbled something he couldn't hear under the music. His gesture at the Van's speakers and then at the steep, snow covered moutainside next to the overlook, clearly got his message across, saying, 'and you playing around with your little boombox could have ruined the plan.'

Finnick snarled something under his breath that would probably have gotten him punched by the bear _if_ Koslov had heard it over the music. But the bear didn't, and he finally grabbed his phone and turned his speaker system off.

"I know what I'm doing for Karma's sake! I know every bit of this town and that soft little song wasn't going to do Rut-all to anyone or anything! That's why I asked you to bring explosives. You _did_ bring the explosives, right?"

Koslov held up a bag in one of his massive paws.

Finnick nodded. "And what about the climbing gear?"

Koslov held up a bear sized fishing pole in the other paw.

Finnick examined it for a second, wonder if this was some sort of joke, then turned to face the bear maintaining a reasonable expression and not curse.

"And why, by the all that's furry, _did you bring that?_ " There that was nice and calm, "How the _hell_ am I supposed to get up or down the mountain with _that_?!"

Instead of replying verbally, Koslov took the end of the fishing line which didn't have a hook, but was tied in a loop and dropped it over him, pulling it tight as it fell past his crossed arms, cinching the line tight over his coat at the level of his stomach.

"Hey! What the Hell you think you're doing?! I thought we agreed _not_ to go with the plan where I was tied up as bait! I told you I have a better way than that to get them to-"

Koslov grunted, then reeled in the line, lifting Finnick right off the roof of his van. He swung the rod out to the side, Finnick swinging and cursing a blue streak under the upheld end of the large fishing pole. Then Koslov hit the reel released and Finnick dropped a foot with a lurch before the bear put some pressure on the fishing line turning Finnick's plummet into a slower more controlled drop to the ground.

But right before the fox got his feet on the ground, the bear reeled him back up to face level.

"That's how." Koslov more grunted than said, an almost invisible smirk to his normally emotionless expression.

" _You bears and your godsdamned fishing obsessions!_ " Finnick snarled, before taking a moment to think. The setup did seem to work, though he'd much preferred normal climbing gear. With a snarl to himself, Finnick pointing a claw at the bear. "If word gets out to anyone about this, and I mean _anyone_... I'LL BITE YOUR _FACE_ OFF! Even if I have to use a Ladder to do it! Mark my words bear!"

There was a noncommittal grunt from Koslov.

Finnick looked toward the edge of the scenic overlook to the mountain below.

"And if you cast me like some trout bait, _I'll do_ _ **worse**_ _than Just Bite your face off!_ " He snarled menacingly.

It might have been his imagination but Koslov almost seemed to grin.

"Right, let's get this the hell over with, hand me that bag." Finnick said gesturing and the bear passed it to him. Finnick checked is contents, then slung it on his back.

"Come on, let's hurry up before I end up looking like one of Nick's damned pawsciles. We still need to get to the trap site and ready the bait. Plus I for one want to get the fuck out of this cold and warm up."

Koslov gave short nod and started heading toward the edge of the overlook, Finnick swaying back and forth under the end of the fishing rod.

"Hey and why the hell were you late?" Finnick asked as he swung, arms still crossed irritably.

The bear mumbled something gruffly.

"What was that?" Finnick said, angling his ears to hear better and bear grumbled again, this time even more gruffly.

"Wait!" Finnick looked up at the bear in shock, "Did you say you had a _date_?!"

Koslov didn't reply but the white fur over his cheeks turned ever so slightly pink, and the fur, now that Finnick was looking at it, looked ruffled as if it had been hurriedly cleaned. _Then_ Finnick noticed what looked like the remains of a lipstick smudge at the far edge of his muzzle, a bear sized, _kiss_ shaped lipstick smudge.

Finnick choked back a snicker, pointing at the bears cheek.

"Y-You, might have um, _oh hells_ ," he choked back another snicker, "You might have missed a spot cleaning up."

Koslov's bushy eyebrows furrowed as a paw went up and touched the spot Finnick was pointing at, before the bear brought his paw in front of his face.

Then, unbelievably the big brute of a bear, seeing the smear of lipstick on his paw _did_ full on blush.

Finnick couldn't hold back any more and doubled over, clutching his stomach as he laughed.

He laughed good and hard like he hadn't since that little goody two paws bunny had hustled Nick back when they'd first met, laughed right up until his stomach flew into his throat as Koslov released the reel catch, sending him plummeting downwards over the edge of the mountainside.

* * *

 **A/N**

…

Really? Did you think that after all that waiting it would be _that_ easy? *snicker*

And to think that you fell for that little trap and then are going to walk into an even Bigger trap _knowing_ it's a trap! *Laugh*

Better luck next time! Better keep an eye on your watches!

…

Chapter 15 - IT'S A TRAP!

24:00.00

Beep

23:59.59

Beep

23:59.58

Beep

23:59.57

Beep

...

Secret Squirrel Division Report:

Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps & Irual, – hustled into beta reading and editing.

Classical Music Community – Currently infuriated at the cavalier abduction and use of their great historical works.

Warner Bros. – the squirrels apparently got side tracked watching Bugs Bunny's _What's Opera Doc_.

…

Inscription on Brass Plaque by broken statue:

 _My name is Zanzarokzymandias, Grinch of Fluffing Grinches;_

 _Look upon my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!_


	16. Chapter 15 - It's A Trap!

.

 **CLASSIFIED: DO NOT READ**

 **THE CONSPIRACY**

…

Operations Clock: 7 hours

...

Disclaimer:

"Capt'n! Come back! That's not going to work!"

Sailor standing on shore shouts out at man wading in surf next to blown up ship's boat they'd used to get to the island.

"I'll be damned before I let him get me again! That's my _brand new ship_!" the captain shouts back gesticulating wildly, "Now be quiet! I got to rope me some sea turtles and make a raft so I can get back to my Ship before he blows up that Fluffing Nuke!"

"Sir! That only works in the movies!"

"No," Coughed the officer poking around trees on the island, "That didn't even work in the movie, that was just a story the actor used to hustle people in the movie."

" **Silence**! I'm getting my ship back come Hell or High Water!"

" _Sir_." The sailor pleads, "That took _Three days_ in the movie! And the tide _is_ coming in and that Fluff Nuke is going to make this island Fluffing Hell on earth, in like thirty Minutes! Not THREE Days! He even put up a countdown timer in the rigging, see?!" sailor gestures at the big digital race clock hoisted up on the ship just so they could see as it clicked down with a 'BEEP' spelled out between second changes on the LED clock display as it dropped toward zero.

"That damned grinch is always late! He won't detonate that Bomb on schedule! It's just another Trick! I'll get me some turtles before he does, then I'll get to that ship, then I'll sail all the way to the arctic to ice that Grinch if I have to!" The captain screams waving his arms, then stops, "Damnit! Your scaring away my rafting turtles!"

"Give up sailor, it's no use." The officer says as he stops, then jumps up and down on a spot below a palm tree.

Sailor looks over at officer as he crouches down and examines the spot under the tree, then looks back at the captain worriedly.

" _Capt'n_! Please! What are you even going to use to tie the turtles together?"

"Hair! You use hair damnit! Everyone knows you tie sea turtles together with hair to make a raft to escape barren islands!"

Officer shakes head as sailor contemplates that for a second.

"Um… Capt'n…" sailor says scratching his own close shaved head, "you're bald… and the rest of us all have buzz cuts…"

Captain stops in surf for a moment, then shakes fist at his ship.

"Then I'll grown some hair!"

"He's going to need a _lot_ more time and rogaine than we currently have if he wants to make that plan work…" Muttered the officer as he lifted up a trap door hidden in the sand under the tree.

The sailor sighs and turns away from the captain.

"You're right sir, I don't think he's going to listen. Hey! What did you find there?"

"Not sure…" the officer mutter disappearing down the trap door then tossing some items out of the hideaway onto the sand.

"Ground coffee… Instant Coffee… Whole bean coffee… canned coffee _ohh…_ looks like that bottled starbucks lattes! I think this is a coffee smugglers hide away!" the officer said excitedly.

"You think we can use that coffee to trap the grinch sir?" The sailor said hopefully, glancing back toward the ship.

 _*Beep* 25:58 *Beep* 25:57 *Beep* 25:56_ scrolled across the LED clock face.

"Maybe… Maybe… huh, that's different."

A couple of beach chairs were thrown up and landed in the sand followed by the officer emerging and reading a off a list he'd apparently found down in the coffee cache.

"This says… _Sit back and enjoy the show, we've even lined up some music for you before we light this puppy off! Oh and here have a coffee on me too… Signed, Grinch. P.S. Ha Ha! You're Fluffing Screwed! Fear The Fluff! Muhahahaha!_ "

The officer stared at the paper for a second looking like he was sucking on a lemon.

"Well… shit."

" _Sir?_ " the sailor asked sounding scared and glancing back toward the ship as some concert speakers started getting hoisted up into the rigging too.

The officer flipped the piece of paper over then squinted, reading.

" _P.P.S. Ha Try and stop me now Disney the Great and Mighty! I've successfully stolen your Zootopia characters!_

 _P.P.P.S. The office of Lawyers for the Fluff Federation of Evil Grinches advise me that I should put the above as a disclaimer…*Pfffttt* as if!_

 _P.P.P.P.S to those barbarian heretics among you that do not enjoy the angel with horns voice and are not familiar with her songs as well as other awesome artist's, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the concert songs or music videos etc. etc. before meeting your_ _ **doom**_ _! It will make the experience that much more… um… worse? Doomyier? Whatever, Listen to the songs first you heathens or I'll Rain Fluff down upon you… wait I'm already planning on doing that Agghhhh! What ever! Clawhauser will haunt your dreams if you don't!_

 _Song List:_

 _Roar By Katy Perry_

 _Waka Waka By Shakira_

 _Hips don't Lie By Shakira_

 _She Wolf By Shakira_

 _Whenever, Wherever By Shakira_

 _Can you feel the love tonight By Elton John/Disney Singers_

 _Somewhere Only We Know By Lily Allen_

 _Try Everything By Shakira_

 _P.P.P.P.P.S. Okay I may have thrown in some extra songs just to keep you all guessing and the grinch lawyers are saying something about disclaimering those too… *Pfffttttt* really? Like a grinch would do that!_

 _P.P.P.P.P.P.S. YOU ALL ARE DOOOMED!_ _ **DOOOOOMED!**_ _MUHAHAHAHHA! GRICHES RULE! SUCK IT LOSERS!"_

Officer and sailor stare at message for a second as Music starts playing from speakers.

"I think he likes using P.S. too much…" sailor mutters

"Losers?!"

Officer looks offended.

"Okay, I am now officially pissed off!" Officer glares at ship off shore, "Sailor we are going to wreck that grinch's plan. I don't care if we have to set off the Fluff Nuke first to get him, but he is going _down!_ "

"Sir! But we'll be caught in the Fluff-splosion if we do that!"

Sailor looks pale.

"Ahh. But so will that grinch." Officer glares evilly at ship.

Sailor nods then glances at the captain splashing around in the surf chasing a turtle before he trips and faceplants in the water.

"Umm… I could get on board with that plan sir… but the captain… if he loses this ship too…"

"The Captain will get over it." The officer says sternly, then glances at the captain sitting in the water crying.

"Maybe…" the officer amends watching as the turtle comes up and nudges the weeping captain. The captain pets the turtle for a second, then looks up and lunges at the turtles as it skitters away in the water before clumsily chasing after it again.

Officer shakes his head.

"But that doesn't matter sailor. All that matters now is that we take that Grinch down with us!"

"Huzzah, Huzzah, We're with you sir!" cheered the lone sailor.

"Good. Now before that clock runs out I need you to go find me some saplings, a _bunch_ of coconuts, a conch shell, some bamboo if there's any on this island, some palm fronds, a couple of rocks about yey big and shaped like this."

"Um, sir, how am I supposed to find all that in the time we have left?!" The sailor asked stunned.

Officer picks up some of the canned coffee and passes it over the sailor.

"Drink up, we gots work to do."

* * *

Chapter 15 In Page Art!

Courtesy of **J-McKeon** inspired by **OceRydia**

Courtesy of **Alamarus** thanks to **Anheledir**

(YES this FanFiction DOT net so you have to go look it up yourself, but it is SO WORTH IT!)

CHECK IT OUT AT:

j-mckeon DOT deviantart DOT com/art/NICK-and-JUDY-GOOD-vs-EVIL-LOGO-FREE-VERSION-708176011

alamarus DOT deviantart DOT com/art/Commission-The-Kiss-730095066

(Can also be found by googling artist's names and 'Deviantart' and looking in their Deviant Art Galleries)

* * *

Chapter 15 - IT'S A TRAP!

"So…" Jack asked, holding back a grin as he and Skye made their way through the crowded concert, "What do you think their chances are?"

To any mammals watching them it probably looked like they were separating from the two ZPD couples that had come in behind them to find their own spot, but Jack could tell from the path Skye was taking that she was really finding a spot from which they'd have a good view to where the other two couples were headed.

Skye let out a small amused snort.

"For Wilde and Hopps? Well… let's just say that I'm betting all in on them finally realizing the obvious. What with everything that's happened I'm a bit surprised they haven't already." She shrugged, "But even if they don't soon, with what's planned they'll either figure it out or prove that they're so dense they never will… or they might possibly die, I wouldn't put that out of the realm of possibilities either. They could make Romeo and Juliet scream bloody murder for all their dancing around the issue and threaten mortal peril if they don't just get on with it and _Kiss_."

Jack snickered as Skye grinned.

"As for the other two…" Skye said shooting him wicked little smile, as she rubbed up against his side, "Given that they've pretty much marked each other, I'm sure that Fangmeyer and Wolford are a done deal by this point. For them, it's going to be just a matter of enjoying the fireworks as they figure that out for themselves. That, _and_ watching to make sure the explosions don't accidentally burn down anything nearby, too."

Jack snorted, looking at the stage were some of the special effects for the end of the last song were finishing.

"Ya... we might want to make sure Fangmeyer isn't _too_ close to the stage if Wolford's parents manage to track them down in here. She might try using those special effects to keep them at bay if she gets cornered right now."

Skye let out a low, sweet laugh that trailed off into giggles before she pecked him on the cheek.

"Always on the job protecting the city and its mammals from behind the scenes, aren't you Jack?" She said half in jest and half with a sort of possessive pride and no small amount of love.

"Well, as funny as watching a mammal try to fend off her future mother-in-law with roman candles might be, having a Gazelle concert end early really would be a tragedy for the city now wouldn't it?" Jack replied casually even as he stood a bit straighter, chest puffing out from the way Skye's look affected him, "Though to be honest," Jack added smiling back at her, "I'm not really doing it for the city, I'm doing it for this girl I like that really _really_ wanted to go dancing at the concert tonight."

Skye stopped in her tracks and turned to face him.

"You know Jack, sometimes you are just too damned smooth," she said, sounding almost irritated, and scowled right before she kissed him.

Jack grinned as the kiss ended, feeling more exhilarated than even when he was pulling off the hardest covert missions where only that smooth charisma was what made the difference between succeeding and dying.

"Too smooth, and too charming," Skye said and nipped his lip lightly before pulling back from the kiss, "I swear, I'm going to find a way to remedy you of that tonight."

She took his paw and led him onto a small opening in the crowd ahead.

"For the rest of the night Jack, you are all _mine_. I already took care of the issue with Wolford's parents." Skye said with an evil little grin and waved her phone in her other paw before tucking it back into her pocket. She stopped in the open section and spun to face him, picking up his other paw so she was holding both of them in hers. "All you need to worry about tonight my _wwwr_ abbit," she grinned devilishly and swayed her hips and tail in counter motion to each other as she started moving toward him, still holding booth his paws, just as the next song started, "… is whether I can manage to break that smooth charm of yours before that little bunny and her fox finally succumb to the inevitable."

Jack's attention had gotten stuck on Skye's sashaying hip motion so much so while she talked and closed in on him, that his attention on everything else going on around them almost slipped.

It took him a few more seconds than it should have to recognize the song that was starting up, but when he did, his eyes went wide.

"Skye!" Jack said quickly a note of dread in his voice as he gulped, "Come on, that's… that's… not fair…"

Skye just smiled at him devilishly, putting more sway into her hips.

* * *

"Bess, you know texting and driving don't go together?" Bogo asked over his shoulder as there was another stifled giggle from his wife followed by a few seconds of furious tapping.

"Of course," she replied cheerily. "But you're driving, I'm just riding."

"Yes… but we don't have helmets, so I'd like you to be holding on with both hands instead of typing just in case something… _unexpected_ happens," Bogo said, thinking darkly about what chaos they might be driving toward, what with Wilde and Hopps and some of his other best officers going winter not even to mention how Jack and Skye seemed to be prodding them all on. He groaned as he turned the Segway around the last turn toward the stadium where the concert was and tried to think happy thoughts.

If nothing else, at least he'd get to see the concert; That was a good thing, a very good thing. And he'd get to see it with Bess, that was even better. Life couldn't be all bad and chaotic with that to look forward to… right?

 _right_?

 _DOOOOOOMMED…_

Bogo's forehead scrunched, and he prayed to all the gods that he hadn't just jinxed himself.

"It's cute that you worry so much about me," Bess commented teasingly from behind, "but I somehow doubt that anything would happen with _you_ driving a _Segway_ , it's not like it's a motorcycle," Bess added with a giggle but after a second Bess's other hoof holding her cellphone wrapped around his waist, her hoof drumming lightly on his stomach.

"You know though, there are easier ways to get me to hold onto you than using that as a pretense." She added slyly pressing up against his back as her arms tightened around his front, one of her hoofs wrapped around his stomach dropping just a little lower than necessary.

There was a momentary bobble in the Segway as a jolt ran through Bogo's body and he let out a involuntary snort of air, though there wasn't even another bull in the vicinity to challenge. It only took him a second to stamp down the involuntary reaction and stop himself from actually stamping as well but it was too late to hide his reaction entirely.

"On second thought," Bess added with a pleased and rather self-satisfied tone, "Maybe I _should_ keep a tight hold on you so I don't fall off."

"BESS!" Bogo said trying to keep his voice from turning into a surprised bellow as he tried to figure out how he should respond to her flirting.

 _Dooooo it!_ whispered an imaginary devils voice in his ear again and Bogo's face turned stony. _You know you want to! Dooooo it!_

 _Oh, would you stop it already!_ Came a sullen voice of the bunny angel, though she was missing her halo as she appeared on Bogo's shoulder glaring at the devil fox whispering into his ear, "You told him we'd leave him alone if he did it and he did!"

There was a snicker from the fox as he casually leaned against Bogo's neck and blew the bunny angel a kiss that had her cheeks turning a bright blushing red.

 _It's called a hustle, Sweetheart!_ The fox said smugly and winked at her.

 _That's- That's- That's- against the law!_ The bunny stammered her blush growing worse and traveling up her ears.

 _Is it now?_ The fox asked with, what Bogo thought was the world's most annoyingly smarmy grin, _I'm just helping him along to the end that we all know is going to happen._

 _You don't know that for sure!_ The bunny shouted back, though her denial was rather unconvincing, almost like she was afraid that he might be right.

 _Of course I do,_ The fox replied, eyes going half lidded as he gazed at her and the angel bunnies face turned cherry red with her blush, contrasting quite a bit with her ruffled white robe.

 _You,_ the fox devil pointed at her, _know where this leads, I know, Hell -bless those flying pigs- even Bogo knows! He's married! As much as that stuck up buffalo butt tries to deny it, he_ _ **absolutely**_ _knows where this is headed! He's just still a giddy love struck fumbling teenager deep inside that sometimes needs a little_ _ **Push**_ _._ The fox thumped Bogo on his nose with a paw right as there was a bump in the road that bounced the Segway and had Bogo bouncing back against his wife's hips as she held onto him and let out a stifled chortle.

 _See?_ The devil fox said dripping smugness, _He_ _ **knows**_ _. And if he didn't, then why is this little-_ the fox looked up at Bogo from his shoulder and coughed, _*ehem*_ _ **Big**_ _cupid, so concerned about making sure things work out for his officers?_

That hit a little too close for Bogo and he frowned fiercely.

The _**only**_ reason he was doing this after all, Bogo told himself, was because the performance of his officers was dropping! It was an issue of the ZPD's morale! Of public safety! Just look what had almost happened with Fangmeyer and Wolford today! Mammals could have gotten hurt! He didn't care if those two finally figured out the happiness they both wanted could be theirs if they just stopped being so dumb about the whole thing!

 _Hey! That was a cheap shot Nick!_ The bunny shouted furiously, _We're not allowed to use mammal's hidden secrets like that! It makes them uncomfortable! Let him have his denials if he wants! It's not like everyone doesn't already know he's got a big marshmallow for a heart already!_

The fox just grinned and pointed at himself.

 _Me, devil. You, angel._ He replied pointing from himself to her. _You might not be able to, but I can. He can keep his denials so long as he knows he has them. This is why things work for us my bunny, We're two extremes, two opposites and we balance each other out. Angel and devil, Fox and Bunny._ The fox finished, paw stopping its back and forth to pointing at her as he smiled.

The bunny in turn opened and shut her mouth flushing badly and trying not to look back at him.

Bogo let out violent snort. Wilde and Hopps had obviously driven him to partial insanity given how insane and sappy his thoughts had become, but that didn't matter. He _didn't care_ about the personal lives of his officers so long as it didn't affect their performance and morale. He'd was only doing his job, nothing else. He _**didn't care**_.

There was another slight bump in the road that had Bess bouncing against his back and her tapping hoof on his stomach bouncing lower again for just a second.

Bogo's whole body went rigid like she'd zapped him with his own taser and he let out another challenging snort of air.

He _didn't_ care about Wilde and Hopps's personal life… but on the other hand, he _did_ care about his and Bess's.

 _Doooo it!_ The devil snickered quietly right into his ear.

 _Okay, that's it!_ the heavily blushing bunny angel said putting her foot down and glaring, _You want to play dirty, then_ _ **I'll play dirty!**_ She held up her paw and snapped her fingers. There was a puff of smoke and her angel robes were replaced with devil's clothes, complete with cape and hat, all in a flash of flame.

 _Your angel wings are still showing_ , Nick replied with a wink and snicker and then pulled out her stolen halo and fitted it over his own head, _But if you want to play devil's advocate for a bit, I guess I can play the angelic voice of reason for a little while too._ The foxes devil clothes shimmered disappeared. Suddenly he was wearing slacks and a nice white shirt… though in an untucked, loose tie manner that despite clearly not being up to on duty ZPD uniform policies managed to give off an air of relaxed competence. It drove Bogo crazy and he wanted to yell at the figment of his imagination to tuck in his shirt.

 _Humph!_ The bunny devil huffed indignantly, though she was clearly taking the chance to check the fox angel out, _No one would ever believe that you're a perfect 'follow-the-letter-of-the-law' angel Nick!_

 _Probably not,_ he replied nonchalantly then placed his hand over his heart and smiled angelically at her, _But for you Carrots, I'd try._

The foxes smile hit her with an audible sizzle and crack, and the bunny was momentarily distracted as she put out a few fires on her clothes that her blush caused.

 _Well then fox,_ the bunny said now fanning herself with a paw, _Since Hell's freezing over why don't you and I go and find us a nice warm spot by some fire and leave the Chief alone so he can decide for himself how to flirt back with his wife?_

 _Are you trying to seduce me away from my mission to help this good hearted buffalo?_ The fox replied, looking aghast.

 _Well…_ the devil bunny said giving him a look, a small wicked smile playing around the edges of her muzzle, _kissing you obviously wasn't enough to distract you away from annoying the chief so I thought more drastic measures might be needed,_ She turned and took a step toward the edge of Bogo's shoulder and flicked her tail at the fox. _Mammals always joke about bunnies being good at multiplying, I'd thought you might want to see if that's true or not for yourself._

The halo over the foxes head drooped to the side suddenly, almost falling off as he ogled the bunnies tail. Then he coughed and tried straightening his stolen halo over his head.

 _*Ehem* Sorry chief but I've got to make this quick,_ he brought up his paw making a flicking motion and a book with a very familiar figure on the front appeared in his hand.

He started to hurriedly read in grand manner.

 _Bogo, disciple of the great archangel, she of the horns, listen to her words and do not take counsel of your fears or insecurities. Try, and if you fail, get up and try again! Keep trying, Try Everything_! _Don't give up, Don't give in, Try till you reach that end!_ The fox looked over at his shoulder at Bess then winked at Bogo in a conspiratorial manner and whispered, _then start with her all over again!_

Bogo despite his determination to remain stone faced, actually blushed a bit as the imaginary devil angel fox elbowed him and waggled his eyebrows.

 _You coming Nick?_ Judy asked in a voice that held all sorts of devilish promises.

The fox threw the book away and sprinted over to Bogo's other shoulder picking up the now giggling bunny as he went and jumped off the edge of his shoulder with her like it was a cliff edge and they were cannon- balling into a lake.

 _Justtttt Dooooooo Ittttt!_ The fox called back as the two imaginary devils or angels or whatevers (Bogo Really _Really_ _ **REALLY**_ didn't care to try and figure exactly what they were) disappeared.

Bess's hoof was still tapping on his stomach rhythmically as she hummed Gazelle's Try Everything to herself and chuckled lightly, her hoofs occasionally dropping lower to run over his belt buckle.

Bogo decided it was best for his sanity if he just ignored everything those two had said, they were just imaginary right? Anyway there was only one angel he would listen to and it was pretty clear what she would suggest he do with his dilemma.

Bogo snorted again as one of Bess's hoofs went adventuring.

"Bad Bess!" Bogo said chastisingly, swatting her rump with his tail while he tried to keep his voice utterly stern (and for the most part succeeding except for a slight giggle at the end).

"Sorry! I'm just got distracted by this pair of buffalo buns, I promise I'll hold on and behave!" She replied though she sounded anything but apologetic as she pressed up against him and wiggled just a bit.

Bogo started to giggle like a teenager, then covered it up with a cough before sternly saying, "See that you do."

Bess's hoofs stopped their wandering as she pulled herself a bit closer and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. She sighed in a contented manner, before giggling 'Bad Bess' to herself and kissed his cheek.

Bogo actually smiled (since Bess couldn't see it and the road to the stadium was fairly empty what with the concert already going on) Bess was holding on to him humming Gazelle songs again and everything seemed just about as perfect as life could be.

Then Bogo noted the storm clouds gathering to the north of the city and heard the two wolves arguing with park security as he pulled the Segway up in front of the stadium.

"We have passes to the concert _and_ a court order!" Mrs. Wolford shouted at the rhino who was squinting at the piece of paper she was waving.

The guard, either not able to read it in the dimming light of oncoming evening or just too nearsighted to see it properly gave up with a grunt and crossed his arms.

"Doesn't matter." He said obstinately, "Starting a Howl, Commandeering a security vehicle, brawling. We even got a call from ZBI about all the chaos that was going on. Said that we're supposed to hold you two until the ZPD Police Chief arrived."

"Oh! Cassandra! There you are!" Bess piped up and hopped off the Segway as Bogo pulled it to a stop. She ran over to the wolf, with an almost giddy skip to her step, "I was just texting with everyone else and we think you should probably be brought in on the plan. No reason we can't help you solve your little problem while taking care of the other one."

The she-wolf gave an amused snort as Bess came up, "You just really want front row seats at the wedding don't you?" She said with a mocking glare and Bess laughed.

"Not just me! So do the Savages."

"There are _more_ savage mammals?!" The rhino's small eyes went a wide and he started looking around wildly.

"No, no silly! We already took care of that _little_ incident." Bess said waving her hoof and the rhino glanced back at her and blinked.

"And just who, _exactly_ , are _you_?" The security guard asked still sounding a bit nervous, but a note of irritation edging his voice.

"She's my wife," Bogo said coming up to the group and the rhino turned to face him, now looking like he was starting to get rather annoyed, "And I'm the ZPD Police Chief." Bogo added before the irate guard was about to speak.

The rhino snapped his mouth shut, biting off whatever he was going to say, then opened his mouth only to freeze for a second, his brow furrowing, as if thinking very carefully about the words that were going to come out of his mouth before he spoke.

"Uhhhhhhhh…"

It took all Bogo's self-control not to roll his eyes. He paused for a second to take a calming breath, then spoke in his 'on the job' voice.

"Thank you for your help, and we apologize for any inconvenience we've caused the park, but we have the situation under control and will make sure nothing else happens."

"Uhhhh…" The guard looked back over at the two wolves and Bess and this time Bogo did roll his eyes.

"I'll be taking charge of those two personally, they won't be causing you any more trouble tonight." Bogo added and the gestured at the two security Segways parked in front of the stadium, "The park has our thanks for lending us their vehicles, I take it we can leave them in your hands?

"Uhhhh…"

The security guard said looking at the two Segways and then back to him as if he had no idea what to do or say or how to even address him.

"Right," Bogo said rubbing his forehead, "The third Segway is down that road near the intersection. We passed it on our way here. Why don't you go get that one and then call the security teams we borrowed them from and tell them they can pick up there vehicles here?"

"Uhhh… right. Yes… yes, I'd better do that," The guard, given instructions from someone in charge, now seemed to be back on familiar ground and nodded at Bogo, "I'll uh… just do that." He nodded once more and the headed off to go retrieve the other Segway.

Bogo pinched his nose and sighed. His officer's might be over achieving pains in his butt, but at least thank all the gods, they weren't _that_ dense. Well, not that dense when it came to police work at least.

"Long day, Mason?" Mr. Wolford asked walking up and Bogo let out a _loud_ snort.

"You have _no_ idea."

"Oh… I might." The wolf said grinning and looking back toward where Bess and Mrs. Wolford were now having an energetic conspiratorially whispered conversation. The she wolf was grinning toothily now, her tail wagging in excitement.

"So do I understand it right," Mr. Wolford asked pointing at the two, "that you have some sort of plan that will help us with our love sick pups?"

Bogo groaned seeing the two excited females whispering together and then looked back up at the gathering storm clouds to the north.

"Had a plan. I _had_ a plan." Bogo emphasized, "But I'm pretty sure the plan is now out of control. Certainly out of _my_ control at least. Lets just hope _we_ don't get caught up in whatever chaos is about to happen."

"Come on you two!" Bess called over waving at them and pointing to the stadium where the sounds of the crowd and music could easily be heard, "Lets get in there and enjoy ourselves before things start getting interesting!"

"To late." Greg Wolford whispered to him and shook his head before smiling and following after their wives.

Bogo gave out defeated groan and followed, muttering 'Doomed' to himself.

* * *

Judy stared up at Nick as he raised both eyebrows, and tried not to meep.

"What deal?!" she squeaked, swallowing hard, "I have no idea what deal your talking about, I didn't take any deal!"

She hadn't taken the deal… not really, otherwise she would have just handed over Nadine and Ralph to Mrs. Wolford on silver platter. There was no deal... just a sort of… understanding. Yes, an understanding between her and Mrs. Wolford. She wasn't going to let that devious wolf get her claws on them and _force_ them to do anything, though…

Well… if Nadine and Ralph decided to go ahead with the wedding on their own… Well then, as their friend it was her job to help out right? And if that help gave her a chance with Nick…

"Soooo… you have no idea about the deal you _didn't_ take." Nick asked looking down at her with an amused smile and this time Judy did meep.

Nick laughed. She flushed in embarrassment at how transparent she was being and then blushed more at realizing how close he was holding her to him. Though that was probably just because of how they were getting bumped from the crowd around them that was going wild as more mammals recognized the distinctive trumpeting start to Gazelle's next song.

"Just what did that she-devil promise you Judy?" Nick asked, a huge grin across his face as his eyes shone with amusement, "A cave full of gold? Three wishes? The Buck of your dreams?"

" _NOOO!_ " Judy squeaked out in a flustered mess.

She hadn't promised her the Buck of her dreams… she didn't want a buck; It was the _Tod_ of her dreams.

"Oh Judy," Nick snickered and then of all things hugged her.

Judy thought that it was a damned good thing he was holding her, because she went a little weak in the knees whenwith how he pulled her her. It was like the boat ride with Nick when she'd lost it. All warmth holding her with russet and cream fur against her face and pleasant fox musk. In fact, it was better because it was _all_ fox, what with the way his tail wrapped her legs; no hard bench seat or anything else to interfere…

Time seemed to stop even as her heart started racing and her mind spun trying to figure out the reason for the sudden hug.

Nick _didn't_ hug. She was his best friend and he'd rarely ever hugged her. He'd hug her _back_ when she hugged him, but she was almost always the one that hugged first… which, part of her mind thought suddenly, made sense given what Skye had said about foxes and their perplexity with touching.

But then why would he be hugging her now?

Her heart _thumped_ hard.

It wasn't like Mrs. Wolford was right and Nick did have some conflicting feelings for her as well as that stupid vixen of his was it? It wasn't like he was actually _flirting_ with her. The very idea of it, the chance it represented, made her heart jump in her chest… But Skye had hugged her too… said that sometimes with foxes that rule was bent with close friends, and Nick was a close friend… her best friend… but maybe… maybe it possible…

"Oh, Judy, Judy, Judy." Nick snickered again, and patted her ears like she was a little kit, "You, my poor little cute country bumpkin bunny, need to be more wary of mammals in this big city or you might just get hustled someday."

Or… he could just be teasing her again, Judy thought with sudden exasperation.

"Cute. _Country_. _**Bumpkin**_. _Bunny!_ " Judy bite out with rising ire and glaring up at him only for Nick's grin to widen.

"Okay maybe Bumpkin was too much, Cute Country Carrot? My good hearted but sometimes oh so naive cutiekins? Maybe- _offt!_ "

"I should have never given you permission to use that word," Judy muttered darkly after elbowing him lightly at the 'cutiekins'

"I thought we agreed that since _I'm_ a fox 'cute' doesn't necessarily mean the same thing that it would if another bunny called you that." Nick said and tapped her nose grinning fit to burst.

"That doesn't mean you can use it all the time like that!" Judy snapped, blushing hard. She'd get him for that cutiekins remark, she would! Even if it was the last thing she did!

"No… but being your best friend does, my _cute_ naive bunny." Nick whispered teasingly just below the rising roar of the crowd, which meant he had to more or less shouted.

"I am _not_ naive!" Judy bit back trying not to flush even more than she already was. Nick wasn't exactly hugging her now, but he hadn't really let go either and his tail was still around her legs… probably because of the way the packed crowd was jumping and shouting she thought. _She_ wouldn't want to worry about _her_ tail getting stepped on, and his tail was so nice and fluffy and warm…

"Well, if you're not wary of a deal from some wolf pack leader then you sure _are_ naive." Nick chuckled, "There isn't a very long list of mammals I'd be worried might turn a hustle back on me, but they'd certainly be on it. Even Nadine the Indomitable had the good sense to run in terror from them."

"She ran," Judy said archly, pointing over to Nadine and Ralph, "because her boyfriend's mother tried subpoenaing her to her own wedding!"

"Exactly." Nick replied with a laugh and more than a little amount of respect in his voice, "Alpha's manage to hold packs of everything from the most cantankerous old wolves to the craziest super hyper energetic youths together Judy. They're beyond devious and conniving." Nick snickered and waved a paw. "Think of them like toothy fairy godmothers with eccentric ideas about what is best for you. They'll promise you the moon and the stars and then spin you around till you don't know up from down.

"She lied?!" Judy said, suddenly aghast and enraged.

She should have _known_ better than to even consider for half a second what that wolf had been promising! Carrot Blasted wolf _had_ only been saying all that to get her to do what she wanted!

Nick waffled his paw.

"Not really… Wolf's are die hards when it comes to things like honor, especially alphas. They wouldn't _lie_ , not directly at least. You'll get what they promised. But you'd better be careful making deals with them, because the better the deal you think you're getting, the more you'll end up doing for them instead." Nick said though Judy wasn't paying attention by that point.

No, she was furiously thinking back over every word Mrs. Wolford had said, what she'd promised. About Nick being scent drunk (and just what exactly did that mean anyway?) and following her, but more importantly about her promise that she could have Nick falling for her. That while Nick might be completely, almost hopelessly, infatuated with his mysterious Foxy Lady, that her nose told her that he did harbor some secret feelings for _her_ too. That there was more than just platonic friendship under what he felt for her. What was it she'd said exactly before Nick had caught up?

 _Oh your right it would take more than that, numbskulls that you two are, but having you catching the bridal bouquet is just the start to my plan. I won't tell you the rest until I get what I want. Otherwise you wouldn't need the help of such an expert matchmaker now would you?_

 _*Huff* being a 'fiendish' matchmaker doesn't discount the fact that I'm still an expert at it! You want him, you love him, why not help me so I can help you get him? It's the smart thing to do._

 _Oh that's the biggest load of bull shit I've ever heard! 'Stealing' him away from his love?!_ _ **HA**_ _! You have_ _ **NO**_ _idea just how stupid that is! Let me tell you about True love you dense bunny. If he'd already decided some vixen was his 'True Love' you'd be screwed! *Snicker* We'll at this rate maybe I should say_ _ **will**_ _be 'screwed'? *Snicker* it's a good thing you have me here to help you with your 'possibly to be screwed' problem, 'screwing' problem? I guess it's more accurate to say your fox issue is more a 'lack of_ _ **screwing'**_ _problem *Laugh*_

 _*Guffawing* Oh, honey, I'm not trying to make fun of your issues getting laid but that is germane to the point, life mates and all. If he'd already chosen some_ _ **other**_ _girl as his one and only, as his True love, you wouldn't have a chance! He_ _ **Certainly**_ _wouldn't be so conflicted everytime his cute tailed bunny 'friend' gave him the hots, because he wouldn't give you the time of day! That goes doubly for him since he's a fox; we canines can be truly stupid when it comes to how the heart feels and our instincts only make it worse._

 _*Snicker* Oh yes you do! You turn him on, crank his wheel, whatever you kids call it these days. He might be good at hiding it, but scent doesn't lie! That stupid fool is too caught up in what you do to him, too scent drunk to use his own nose right and put two and two together… but that's not the point. You say he's already in love with a Foxy Lady? Well the fact is that as deeply infatuated with_ _ **her**_ _as he_ _ **might**_ _be,_ _ **you**_ _still have a shot at being his true love. That Foxy Lady hasn't locked up his heart yet; It's up for grabs… well up for grabs_ _ **between the two of you**_ _at least, but no matter how far behind in the race to get it you might be, you're still in the running. *Evil Grin* And I can help you get off the starting line and win it too. All I need is your help getting my two run-away pups to their wedding. You help me get their happily ever after and avoid a disaster for my pack and I help your you and your foxfox and you get the happily ever after you've been wishing for. I swear by the moon and the stars that I can._

Judy stood there, oblivious to everything as she furiously thought about that conversation.

If Mrs. Wolford _hadn't_ been lying…

Judy's heart started beating _way_ to fast, even for a bunny.

She glanced over to were Nadine and Ralph were. Her tickets to happiness… but she couldn't. Well, point of fact, she could. She _could_ bag both of them and deliver them hogtied to Mrs. Wolford right now, she had her tranq pistol and cuffs… but no she _wouldn't_ do that, even as carrot picking much she wanted to. She couldn't, not by force like that. But there were other ways…

It seemed like Nadine might have been right when she'd yelled at her earlier. Maybe it was time to do less assuming and more finding out… And maybe she'd corner Nadine after the concert and give her a tough love conversation too. She could be very persuasive when she needed to be. She'd made it into the Academy and then into Precinct One by using the facts of what was right to club down every obstinately opposing mammal in her way. And if that didn't work, well there were still other ways besides force… begging for one… or maybe a super soaker, even Nadine had her weaknesses too...

Devils bargain or not though, if that wolf could do what she'd said she'd take-

"So what was it you thought that she-wolf had lied about?" Nick asked snapping Judy out of her racing thoughts and back to the present.

"I, ah- what?" Judy asked, half dazed by the sudden flood of ideas and possibilities and half terrified out of her mind. She'd heard him perfectly fine with her ears but she needed a moment for her mind to catch up, to try and think, to get ahold of herself and figure out what to do, and carrot blast it! The way Nick was still so close to her, smiling like she was acting _very_ interesting and amusing was _not_ helping!

"I asked," Nick said leaning in so that his muzzle brushed her ears and shouted above the music and the crowd, and inadvertently made Judy's breath come in a bit short. "What was it-" He was too close; _too_ close to her, too close to pulling the information about what she and the Devil's Matchmaker had discussed, too close to making her heart stop and explode- "you thought that she-wolf-" She needed a distraction. Something to change the subject, to do anything to get Nick not to ask what he was asking about.

Above the thunder of the crowd Gazelle's voice rang out over the speakers, "Come on Zootopia and all you girls out there, let's show those boys what we've got!" And the crowd roared in response, many of them starting to shout along as the crowd moved, danced, while Gazelle kicking into her song.

 _Perfect!_ Judy thought and beamed Nick with a smile born of such desperation and Gazelle music fanaticism she could muster that it was a wonder she didn't blind him.

"I think She-Wolfs a great song!" Judy shouted intentional mishearing what he'd been saying, "But this one's better! Come on, it's too crowded here to dance!" She grabbed Nick's paw before he could speak again and dragged him in the direction of the less crowded area Ralph and Nadine had found. She even put some hop into her steps as she began to sing to the refrain of the song.

"Judy, that's not what- I wasn't talking about the song 'She Wolf'- I was-" Nick spluttered as he suddenly found himself dragged along behind her.

"You said _you_ were looking forward to _dancing_ to 'She Wolf'?" Judy shouted back and let out a laugh at the flustered reaction _that_ got from her fox, "I didn't know you liked that song so much Nick!" she said with just the right amount of honest disbelief and teasing in her voice and bounced over hip bumping him.

"No! I don't! I- I didn't- I-" Nick was full on stammering now. And Judy grinned brightly. She'd successfully sabotaged his line of inquiry, and even managed to fluster him. That was a bonus.

Judy grinned (only slightly manically); With the possibility of him discovering her little secret now (mostly) out of the way, her panic started to subside. And with Gazelle singing she was even starting to enjoy the concert, plus Nick looking flustered as he tried to regain his self-control was ridiculously _cute_.

Now she just needed to keep this up for a little while till he completely forgot about what he'd been asking.

Judy hopped over and hip bumped Nick again, effectively stopping his stammering.

Score another one for her! Judy mentally tallied for herself.

"Come on Slick, You said you were going to show me up with your _groovy_ dance moves, lets see you try!" And Judy threw herself into the song, dancing and added her voice to the crowd. With Nick distracted, she could take a few minutes to forget about everything else, about all her worries and just enjoy being here at the concert with him, Judy decided.

* * *

Gazelle looked out over the roaring crowd and smiled as the powerful stage lights moved, twisting and turning like great white lances in the sky to the beat of the song finally stopped, focusing on the center stage. They dimmed while the pyrotechnics around the edge of the platform with their explosions of brilliance faded into the dusky twilight coming in from the opened top of the stadium.

"Thank you all, but we're only getting started, and we have quite the night planned!" She said into the microphone as she turned walking toward the back of the stage while her tiger dancers moved into position for the next song along with all the other performers on the suddenly dimmed stage.

She stopped at the rear of the stage and turned, one spot light still illuminating her and holding the crowd's attention.

"So are you all ready to party?" She asked throwing up one hoof in a flourish, as all the lights but the one on her faded completely and the crowd roared back.

She smiled at the enthusiasm and energy of the crowd and snapped the fingers of her upraised hoof.

Two trumpets sounded out of the dark as spot lights to either side of her snapped on illuminating the two elephantine trumpeters dressed like classic charro's moved onto the stage, playing a crisp descending salsa solo in sync, almost as if they were dueling each other.

Gazelle followed as the two trumpeters moved forward, throwing their trunks out from side to side under their large wide brimmed hats and belted out the music. She reached up taking off the coat she'd started the concert with and dropped it, adding more sway to her hips as she moved, the spotlight on her catching the edges of her ruffle skirt she know wore in full view as the fabric fluttered and snapped with her movement.

The roar of the crowd rose competing with trumpeters as their descending tune shifted, now rising and another spot light lit ahead of her at the front of the stage.

"No fighting now, no fighting!" the panther that the spot light illuminated called toward the trumpeters, before raising the microphone in his paw just as the two elephants turned to face each other and each took a step back leaving Gazelle in center stage as she stopped and started moving in a hip swaying dance.

The elephants raised their trunks blaring out the last notes of their solo just as the panther leaned back calling into the microphone, matching the rising end notes of the trumpets.

" _Gazelle! Gaaa-zelle_!"

Gazelle grinned and swayed, flicking her hips as the full band kicked in right as the trumpet sole finished and the panther moved with the music singing into the microphone.

 _~I never really knew that she could dance like this~_

 _~She makes a man want to speak Spanish~_ he moved forward with music still singing as her tiger dancers took up position behind him,

 _~Como se llama~_

 _ **Si!**_ the tigers all chorused in unison as they moved, danced in perfect sync, and panther sung still heading toward Gazelle as she made her frilled skirt flash in spot light.

 _Bonita_

 _ **Si!**_

 _~Mi casa,~_

 _ **Gazelle! Gazelle!**_

 _~Su casa!~_

Gazelle smiled as the music swelled with roar of the crowd and gave an encompassing wave at them called into the microphone before singing,

"Come on Zootopia and all you girls out there, let's show those boys what we've got!"

And then she turned back to the panther and moved, hips swaying, skirt flashing as she danced in counterpoint to him, and sung with everything she had,

 _~Oh… baby when you talk like that~_

 _~You make a woman goooo mad~_

 _~So, be wise~ ~_ _ **Si!**_

 _~and, keep on~ ~_ _ **Si!**_

 _~Re-ading the signs of my body~ ~_ _ **uno, dos, tres, cuatro**_ The tigers continued to chorus, now surrounding both of them as Gazelle sang, hips flashing, as she danced around the other singer and the crowd thundered, many of them singing and dancing along to the pulse and beat of the music.

Gazelle let out a beaming smile, feeling the exhilaration of the music and the mammals, and stopped in place, flicking her hips and sang on,

 _~I'm on tonight, you know my hips don't lie~_

 _~I'm starting to feel it's right~_

 _~All the attraction, the tension~_

 _~Don't you see baby, this is perfection~_

* * *

 _~Don't you see baby, this is perfection~_ Skye sang along, pulling Jack with her as she moved, her oh so perfect hip brushing against his seductively.

"Perfection alright," Jack muttered, swallowing hard and tried to subtly adjust his pants that felt way too tight at the moment.

"You're way to good at this attraction thing Skye," he added almost sullenly and she smirked as he unsuccessfully tried to shift to relieve the pressure, muttering, "the tension is going to kill me."

Skye just snickered.

She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as she moved to the music, her sandy white tail wrapping around his legs before she leaned down and nipped his nose.

"It's winter and I'm a vixen Jack, you should have figured this out by now," she said smiling, a merry twinkle in her blue eyes as she slowed her movements and nudging him till he wrapped his arms around her back just over her tail and started to move with her, their hips almost pressed together.

"You're my mate, my oh so reckless and too charming for his own good mate, and I'll do anything, use every underhanded and dirty trick there is to keep you." she pecked his lips, "You." Then again "are. _Mine_." She marked each word with a kiss, the last one coming out with a bit of possessive growlishness that he found unreasonably attractive.

"Still a bit peaked over my recklessly charming attempt to get Wilde to break earlier?" Jack asked looking up at his vixen as they slowly danced.

"Not really," Skye said smiling down at him, "Though it's a great excuse to torment you," she added with waggle of her hips against his.

Jack bit his lip trying not to react, and Skye chuckled before giving him a lighter longer kiss.

"I know what you were doing Jack. And more importantly I'm _your_ mate, I know that you love _me_ and _only_ me, heart mind and soul. You've shown me that in a thousand different ways over the years," she rocked her hips against his, pressing against his tight pants and smirked as he let out a low involuntary groan, "See? There's another one too!" she added, grinning toothily.

"You really are intending to break me before the night is over aren't you?" Jack asked gritting his teeth as he tried to hold it together and not drag Skye out of the concert to somewhere more private.

"Yep- _p_!" she said popping the p.

"Vixen." Jack replied rolling his eyes and she smiled.

" _Your_ vixen." She stated.

Jack leaned up and kissed the bottom of her muzzle.

"My vixen,"

She let out a happy rumbling sound.

"You know it's your fault, right?" Skye added looking at him as if nothing else in the world mattered to her, " _You_ married me."

Jack let out a laugh, "It's not like I had much of a choice! _You_ proposed! What else could I say but yes?"

Skye kissed him again.

"Well _you_ made me fall in love with you! What did you expect to happen?" she asked with an indignant huff, then grinned and whispered in his ear teasingly pressing against him again, "I had to do something before winter rolled around; There's nothing so completely unreasonable as a love sick vixen in heat."

"Tell me about it." Jack groaned sarcastically as she pressed against him, and then desperate for something to distract him from his love sick vixen driving him mad, shifted the conversation.

"How is that other unreasonable love sick 'Foxy Lady' doing with her perspective mate? She hasn't had a sudden case of reason and just proposed to _him_ yet has she?"

"No- _p_ e!" Skye said popping the p again as she looked over his shoulder and giggled. "But it looks like she's already managed to break her fox so I think they'll be alright." Jack turned his head looking and saw dumbfounded gaping expression on Wildes face as he stared at the dancing bunny and snickered too.

Skye's muzzle brushed against his long ears, and she let out a deep possessive rumble.

"Looks like I have some catching up to do…" she murmured, and Jack's snicker died a sudden and ignominious death as she turned with the circle of his arms and started singing along to the music again.

Jack to his undying shame let out a startled _meep!_ as she started dancing, rocking her hips and swishing her tail against him as while resting her paws over his, low on her waist, so he couldn't get away…

 _~I'm on tonight, you know my hips don't lie~_

 _~Am I starting to feel you boy?~_

 _~Come on lets go, real slow~_

 _~Don't you see baby asi es perfecto~_

* * *

"Nadine."

The tigress didn't seem to hear him as she popped her head above his shoulder and looked around as if they were in some savannah grassland and she was trying to spot another dangerous predator. Which Ralph guessed, wasn't far off from what she was actually doing.

"Nadine." he said a little louder.

Nadine popped back down and pulled him a little to the side using a few hippos and then a giraffe couple toward the edge of the stage for cover as if they were brush and trees in her urban savannah. She slunk past them pulling him by the paw then stopped again and carefully raised her head looking around.

" _Nadine_." Ralph tried once more to no effect, then had to bite back a laugh as he saw how she'd positioned them in a gap to the far side of the stadium near the stage. It wasn't a great spot to view the concert since they were more to the side instead of in front of the stage, but they had one wall covering their side and a group of larger mammals between them and the main entrance. It would be nearly impossible for anyone entering the concert to pick them out without have to do a _lot_ of searching.

"Nadine. We're safe." Ralph said with another chuckle, but when she didn't reply and only continued to scan their surroundings he huffed in exasperation.

" **Nadine**! My parents won't find us here. We're fine now."

Still no response. Ralph rolled his eyes and decided to take a different approach and see if that could get any response.

"So you want to make out?" he asked grinning boyishly.

Annnnnnd Nothing.

Maybe another tack then. He should probably get a few things off his chest anyway since Nadine was bound to find out regardless.

"Sooo. I hope you won't be upset but I should probably tell you that… well… you know how I told you yesterday that I was really conflicted when I first started having feelings for you? well ya… I _might_ have… um, sort of… stolen one of your ZPD training shirts… back um, when we were at the academy…"

Nothing. Huh, well that little revelation was going better than he'd feared.

"I mean 'stolen' is a strong word since we'd graduated, and you were tossing your old academy clothes when we were clearing out of the dorms, and… well Nadine you got to understand it was a complete impulse reaction! It was on your trash bin outside your door when I was taking mine to the dumpster and… I don't know, I just remember smelling something really nice and sort of snagged it as I passed… I didn't really think about it or realize I'd um… taken it, till I was back in my room and then I was too embarrassed to give it back! I mean at the time I thought I was crazy and messed up for being so infatuated with you and we'd only recently really become friends after that whole boxing ring fiasco, and I was afraid if you'd found out I'd been so weird it would ruin our friendship. And ya… sorry again about ogling your chest in the ring, I know you said we're square on that because you got to slugged me good while I was distracted… but I still feel stupid for embarrassing you like that."

Nadine's ears perked up as she stilled, trying to listen for sounds of danger over the music and crowd.

"Soooo… are we good?"

Nadine's ears flicked and then she cocked her head, her whiskers twitched as she sniffed the air.

"I'll ah… take that as a yes?" Ralph asked.

Still nothing.

Ralph let out a sigh.

"Nadine, My parents _aren't_ going to find us here. There are _way_ too many scents in this place for them to track us. Do I have to boop your nose to get that point across?"

Nadine yelped, jumping, before covered her nose with both paws.

"Don't even think of booping me here Ralph!" She shouted at him, eyes wide, "I don't have the self-control at the moment to deal with you booping me!"

"Oh good," Ralph grinned, "So you were paying attention to what I was saying, I was afraid I was going to have to repeat that."

"I -what?!" Nadine stopped and her brow furrowed as for the first time since they'd entered the concert she seemed to think of something else besides his parents tracking them down.

"Did you say you stole my academy workout shirt?!" She finely blurted out, a look of shock on her face.

"Ummm…" Ralph scratched his head, "sort… of…?"

Nadine blinked at him, then chuffed and crossed her arms.

"Is there anything _else_ I should know about?" she asked.

Ralph blushed a bit and looked down mumbling.

"What was that?" Nadine asked, taking a step closer to him and angling her small round ears forward away from the concert speakers.

"I also maybe marked that shirt…" Ralph muttered blushing and Nadine facepalmed.

"Of course he did," she muttered to herself with an exasperated, " _Wolves_ "

"Hey, you had my shirt from the cruiser in your apartment!" Ralph muttered defensively, still blushing hard.

"That," Nadine said a bit of pink coloring her white stripes, "was an honest mistake! Our clothes got mixed up and, and I was going to give it back!"

"Two weeks," Ralph retorted, grinned happily, "You had it for nearly two weeks." It was silly, but the idea that Nadine had been just as guiltily hanging onto some of his clothes made his tail wag.

"I _was_ going to give it back!" Nadine said adamantly, her voice going a little high, and Ralph's grin grew as the telltale sign in her tone said otherwise. Her defiant expression cracked as she apparently caught how her voice was contradicting her statement as well.

Nadine quickly glanced at him as if hoping he hadn't caught that but then saw his wagging tail and huffed sullenly, "At least _I_ didn't mark it!"

"Nope. No, you did not." Ralph said his grin now turning wolfish at the memory of just _what_ scents had been on his shirt and he unconsciously took a step closer to Nadine, "Well… not 'scent marked' it at least." he added impishly, "Not like you did to this one," he tugged at the shirt he had on for emphasis and Nadine stammered for a second, flushing badly as he moved so that there was a bare fraction of an inch between them. "That shirt of mine you had at your apartment didn't have your scent mark on it, but it _did_ smell of you." Her whole living room had smelled of her, of tiger, of heat, of arousal and satisfaction; his memory of that was a little hazy, like he'd walked into a too hot sauna, but there was no way he'd ever forget how Nadine's scent filling that room clung to his shirt.

~ _My hips don't lie and I am starting to feel it's right~_

 _~All the attraction, the tension~_

 _~Don't you see baby, this is perfection~_ _ **~Gazelle, Gazelle~**_

The songs seemed far off and distant as her recalled the smell from his memory.

"Just yours and the lingering traces of my scent…" Ralph said huskily, almost growling with pleasure as he took in a breath through his nose, the inhale ruffling the fur of Nadine's neck as he pressed against her. Everything but his tiger seemed to fade into the background as he smelled her, felt her against him, even the music seemed to fade away…

"Ralph…" Nadine said her own voice a bit shaky and nervous though there was an undeniable hint of longing in the way she said it. It made his chest rumble with pride and exhilaration.

She _liked_ him.

She was attracted to him.

She wanted him.

There was no denying that on the most basic primal level this tigress, _his_ tigress wanted him and that deep primal part of himself exalted in the fact.

"Your scent Nadine." He said, staring into her eyes and seeing nothing else, even as her breath caught. "Your scent was all over my shirt," he nipped her chin and she let out a small gasp, more like a squeak and shuddered against him, "Your scent just like it smelled after we kissed this morning," he growled and took in another breath, "Your scent like it smelled on the boat in the tunnel Nadine. Your scent just like it starts to smell when I do this…" and he nipped her chin again.

" _Ralphhhh_ ," Nadine practically whimpered, an almost terrified desperation in her voice as she breathed hard. Both of her paws gripped the back of his shirt and shook slightly, almost for a second as if she was going to try and pull him away from her, though instead they pulled him closer.

The growl that emanated from him was deep and pleased and primal and possessive. He pressed his nose into her fur, breathing in as her ran it along her cheek and down under her chin along her neck.

This time there were no words that accompanied the soft almost silent mewling whine she let out, and her muzzle tilted up ever so slightly as his nose ran under it giving him full access to her throat. His possessive happy growl intensified at the subtlety submissive gesture.

Nadine didn't submit to anyone or anything. She was independent and strong and cunning and she could beat him more often than he could her, well sometimes, yet… there it was…

He nipped her throat lightly. A playful happy little teasing bite.

She wanted him, wanted to be his. Her scent said it. Her actions said. She'd all but even admitted it outright. And he _wanted_ her back just as much. She'd never be some submissive mate, someone who'd do anything he told her to, but he didn't want that. He wanted someone who'd challenge him, who'd run beside him, not behind or in front of him. Someone to be his equal, his partner; someone to joke and play with, to love, to build a life, a family, together with. He wanted _her_ , and she wanted _him_. And in that one way she wanted to submit to him, to be _his_. To be his in a way she'd never be to anyone else, just as he wanted to be _hers_.

"Ralph!" Nadine meeped as she shuddered under the nip, her scent flush with pheromones and adrenalin and arousal and pure desire that was driving him mad, "Ralph! The biting! Careful with the biting, I- _Ralph…_ that means something more for felines…" Nadine's words cut off in a low mewl as he nipped the edge of her jaw while his nose continued to travel up to the other side of her muzzled.

 _His_.

Nadine's paws were holding him so tightly he could feel her claws poking him through the fabric of his shirt and pants. He held her back and growled happily.

Nadine was _his_.

His one and only.

His partner.

His mate.

Now and forever.

The need to shout that to the world, to proclaim his claim on her, to _mark_ her for anyone and everyone to know that this tigress was _his_ mate was overwhelming. Nothing else mattered but that she be his and he hers.

Ralph's nose traveled along her cheek taking in her scent as Nadine made an almost pained moaning sound, her breath coming quick and hot against his neck as her head rested against his.

 _His._

 _His Tiger._

 _MINE!_ Howled something deep inside of him and Ralph turned his muzzle to rub it along hers, to press his scent into her. A scent that, running high with his emotions and need and love of her, would tell any other mammal that she was taken. A scent that wasn't just from some accidental brush against her, a scent that screamed _Mine, MINE,_ _ **MINE**_ , a scent that wouldn't easily be washed away… a scent… a scent that was already there?

The moment of confusion broke through the haze that encompassed Ralph's mind, bringing with it all the noise and lights and smells of the concert crowd around them crashing down on the world he'd been in a moment before that had included only himself and Nadine.

 _~Oh boy, I can see your body mooooving~_

 _~Half mammal, half savage animal~_

 _~I don't, don't really know what I'm dooooing~_

 _~But you seem to have a plan~_

 _~My will and self restraint,~_

 _~Have come to fail now, fail now…~_

The concert. They were at the concert and he'd almost lost it and marked Nadine! Well, lost it and marked her _again_ , some part of him noted with a bit of shame while another growled menacingly and fought against his shaky control, wanting nothing more than to shed all the trappings l entrapping's of civilization and just claim her here and now before anyone else did.

And then there was that other part, that part that sent a shard of terror through his heart at the fact that he had technically marked her, but she hadn't marked him back. That he'd been rejected, that no matter how much he wanted her, loved her, that she would not take him as her mate. That he'd have to live his life alone knowing the one mammal he'd wanted nothing more than give his heart to didn't want it. Logically, he knew better. Could line out the facts of what had happened and that Nadine hadn't actually rejected him ( _yet… hadn't rejected him yet. yet. yet… Why else would she not have answered him yet?_ a little voice in the back of his mind echoed), but that painful jaggedly barbed shard of worry wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to pull it out or how much logic he threw at it. It was the focus of all his fears and it was the best he could do just to keep it at bay _especially_ with how every breath, brought the scent of his mark on her reminded him of the fact he hadn't gotten an answer to his claim.

"Nadine?" Ralph asked shakily, trying to reassert himself and not just start wildly, desperately marking her in case she hadn't realized he had the first time. Which was stupid, since she had, since they were here to talk about just that? Weren't they? It was hard to think past that bit of panic inside him, past the primal urge to throw himself at her. His instincts were screaming at him to do something before it was too late, to show the mammal he was holding how much he loved her, wanted her, that he was a desirable mate, that he'd protect her and care for her and love her and be there for her and-

"Rajah save me…" muttered Nadine almost incoherently in a low hoarse voice and Ralph belatedly noticed how unsteady she was. Her arms were holding him so tightly that her claws were digging through his clothes and pelt to the point it almost hurt, and her breathing was heavy and unevenly ragged. He turned to look at her face and when his eyes caught hers, she let out another mewling groan before hurriedly closing them and leaning down to bite the crook of his shoulder as she shook against him.

Ralph let out a startled yip at the bite.

It wasn't painful exactly, but she had a strong enough hold of him that there wasn't a chance in hell he would have been able to get away if he'd wanted to.

" _Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf…_ " Ralph heard Nadine muttering past her clenched teeth as if it were some mantra.

"Nadine?" Ralph asked again this time with a bit of worry in his voice as he tried to wade through his sluggish thoughts and understand what was going on with his tiger.

"Give me just a minute!" Nadine growled _savagely_ at him, her jaws hold on his shoulder momentarily tightening enough to make him yip again before she went back to mumbling.

" _Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf…_ "

Ralph figureddecided it would be best to let her have her minute and decided to take the time to try and reign in his more primal urges and thoughts so he didn't lose himself in a case of winter savagery like he'd almost done a moment ago.

He sighed and laid his head against Nadine's large shoulder, then let out a stifled if amused snort.

They must look like an odd sight. Even ignoring the difference in species; With the way they were holding each other, it probably looked like they were slow dancing (and maybe necking too) while most of the crowd was enthusiastically dancing to the hip swaying beat of Gazelle's song.

In fact, add to that how Nadine was bigger than him and that without standing on his toes his head rested evenly against her shoulder as they held each other, and to any mammal without better night sight in the darkened stadium, it probably looked like he was the classic female swooning against her guy as he nuzzled and kissed her neck and whispered sweet nothings.

" _Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf, Stupid wolf…_ " Nadine continued to repeat to herself, sounding almost like she wanted to punch something.

Well, he guessed he'd take that as Nadine's version of sweet nothings, Ralph thought with a smile. If it meant he was _her_ 'stupid wolf' he'd take it and be happy for it. It was only after he'd started to let out a rumbly happy growl that Ralph realized he'd started rubbing his head against Nadine's shoulder and immediately stopped.

 _Opps…_

Ralph mentally kicked himself, as he redirected his thoughts away from the dangerous areas they'd been headed. Luckily though it looked like Nadine was still too preoccupied with her chant to notice that he'd started to mark the shirt she was wearing.

She'd marked his though… so fair was fair, right?

Ralph closed his eyes for a second and growled, this time at himself as he _desperately_ tried to get control of his thoughts. He'd been holding it together fine all day, well except for that one bit this morning with Nadine's bed… but besides that he hadn't wolfed out once today while they'd been at the park! He'd been doing fine so why was his control so utterly shot right now?

It took him longer than it probably should have to come to an answer, but his disordered mind finally managed to produce it none-the- less. It was rather obvious when he thought back on it.

His mark.

He'd been fine up until he'd found out that he'd accidently marked her this morning. _That_ was what was driving him crazy. Well not the mark, but the fact that his claim was… well not that it wasn't reciprocated exactly, she hadn't rejected him after all… ( _yet… yet... yet…_ ) oh gods he hoped she wouldn't reject him, he didn't know what he'd do if she- but that was stupid. He _knew_ she cared, he could _tell_ that she liked him, She'd taken his shirt and marked the one he was wearing and- Ralph shook his head trying to dislodge the circular train of alternatingly depressing and euphoric thoughts.

He didn't want to pressure Nadine into a response, but the unanswered question of his claim was eating away at any control he tried to muster. And in fact, Ralph thought, thinking back to this morning. The incident with him losing it when he'd scent marked her bed had happened right after their little episode in the living room where'd he'd unconsciously marked her.

Not that realizing any of that helped him regain his control now.

Ralph gritted his teeth but pressed his head back against Nadine's shoulder, this time though, making damned sure he didn't start marking her again.

He _could_ wait, Ralph thought sternly, If Nadine needed some time, then he could give it to her. He'd wait even if it killed him… he wait forever for her…

Ralph closed his eyes trying to quite his mind, but his closed eyes only made him _more_ aware of Nadine's scent and his mark.

 _Oh gods this wait_ _ **is**_ _going to kill me!_

Ralph tried not to whine and quickly reopened his eyes, looking around for anything to distract himself with.

There was… was… hey, there was Judy and Nick dancing near them. Well Judy was dancing to the music, bouncing and hopping and shaking her hips and tail with gusto. Nick wasn't so much dancing as… gawking. Completely dumbfoundedly gawking while staring at herthe little puff of a tail as the bunny bobbed and twitched it in front of him as she danced, her focus on Gazelle's performance on stage as she sang along with the crowd.

There was no way she wasn't doing that on purpose, part of his mind thought as Judy's puff of a tail made a little twitch and Nick's nose twitched in turn. The poor fox looked like he'd just been hit by a rhino sized semi truck as his gazed followed the bouncing fluffball wiggling in front of him with a longing desperation that was practically tangible.

There was no way she couldn't miss the effect she was having on Nick… but the way her focus was on the stage… she wasn't stealing glances back at him… wasn't…

Ralph shook his head as his mind debated with itself whether it was deliberate, or she was just completely oblivious.

At any other time he would have found the sight of cock sure Nick Wilde so utterly discomposed and confounded by an itty bitty bunny (not that he'd _ever_ call Hopps that) hilarious. It was like watching a romantic slapstick comedy, and before today he might have even taken a few pictures to rib his friend over when they were having drinks, but the way the stunned fox was looking at Judy…

There was a painful sympathetic twinge in his own heart as he thought of just how much he wanted Nadine. For a moment he thought he understood exactly how the other canine must be feeling.

Denying how you felt about something and ignoring it was a lot easier until you admitted it, then it wasn't so easy to ignore any more. Nick had been doing a good job at ignoring his feelings until winter rolled around and clubbed him with them and now the fox was a literal discombobulated mess. Ralph thought he'd been doing a better job with himself, he'd finally confronted his feelings a while back when he couldn't hide it from himself anymore. He'd made plans to deal with it… okay, so he'd procrastinated too long with his worrying and second guessing and had missed his chance to ask Nadine out last spring… and summer… and fall… but he'd was going to ask her out this _spring_ by Balto! He'd even bought the tickets to the game to make sure he would!

But that was beside the point, and things had gone off script when he'd walked into Nadine yesterday and she'd pulled him into the small viewing room like it had been one of his daydreams… which it hadn't been, much to his mortification and then exhilaration at the giveaway in Nadine's scent that incident had caused. Everything he'd been keeping bottled up sort of just came out completely unplanned after that and lead to one thing after another and now he was here facing the truth that he fooled himself with for he didn't know how long, that he wasn't just interested in Nadine and wanted to date her but that he was totally, completely, irrevocability in love with her and wanted nothing else in the world but to be with her, to…

Ralph looked away from Nick quickly, before he let out a longing howl and looked for something else to distract himself with.

There was the giraffe couple near them, it was pretty amazing, almost comically so, how far their long legs let them sway their hips to the music, but the thought of what it might be like for them being so high up on those wishy washy toothpick phone poles for legs reminded him of the rollercoaster and his dislike of heights and how Nadine had clutched at him when the rollercoaster dropped pressing her breast against his muzzle, those breast pressed against his chest right under his muzzle right now… and something else, he needed to think of something else, right, damned, now!

Ralph looked around desperately.

Gazelle's performance on the stage was everything her fans could have wished for, with her singing and dancing to the choreographed music, but despite all her vibrance and makeup and sparkly clothes she didn't hold a candle up to Nadine… Ralph dragged his eyes away from the pop idol as his mind tried to imagine what _Nadine_ would look like dressed up and singing like that. Instead he focused on her tiger stage dancers. That had to be a safe thing to distract his mind from thoughts of his tigress, right? As well muscled as they all where Ralph couldn't help but imagine how Nadine could probably toss their prettyboy, sparkle clad, d ,spandexed rears around the fighting ring as if she'd was playing with kittens. The imagery of Nadine, _his_ Nadine, upstaging all those pampered pieces of eye candy had him grinning. He could even imagine the witty sarcastic remarks Nadine would certainly make as she cut them down to size.

 _Oh come on put your hips into that punch, I know bunnies that wouldn't be knocked over by that tap. What was the point of all that hip shaking on stage if you can't do anything with it?_

 _Oh the poor pretty kitty got cranky angry because he found out he punches like a dandy? *snicker*_

 _Pfffft! You call that kitten mewl a roar? Opps! Look at that, you were so distracted showing off that now I have control of your arm! And twist and bend and now its locked and look! I have your other arm now too! Be glad you're fighting me and not my teacher; Major Friedkin would tie your arms up in a bow for a mistake like that, maybe even use your tail as a ribbon to make the knot look pretty! Tut, tut, snarling won't do you any good, and watch your footing and center of balance, you're over extending; see now this is how you use your hips for something useful, see that! That's how you make somebody fall for you with a hip thrust, and ouch, try not to land on the ground face first, that can't be good for you if you want to make a living off your looks._

Okay so maybe Nadine had gotten to use that hip thrust jibe on him, but in his defense he hadn't been off center, he'd just been distracted; plus he'd gotten her back for that when he'd distracted her with his tail. Nadine was such a cat sometimes. Ralph snickered at the memory; he'd baited her and she hadn't been able to resist the urge to pounce on the twitching fluffy appendage he'd left wide open. The look on her face, mid pounce, when she realized it'd been a trap instead of an easy victory for her had been priceless; he'd even had her wrapped up and pinned before the match had gone a quarter of a minute.

Ralph smirked at the tiger dancer closest to the edge of the stage near them, eye candy they might be, but he knew Nadine and they'd never stand a chance with her, not physically and not if they tried court her either. She'd chew them up and spit them out. Nadine wasn't just _pretty_ , she was elegant; her strength and toned form wasn't just for show and she had a mind every bit as sharp as her claws and a sly humorous wit to go with it. And she was down here holding _him_ , while they were stuck up there shaking their spandexed rears, Ralph though with an admittedly vain amount of self pride. But he let himself have that moment of excess hubris. It helped distract from the wait _that was slowly killing him_!

Something about his look though seemed to catch the attention of the tiger dancer nearest them and without breaking from the choreographed dance the tiger moved over to the edge of the stage near them.

Side step, twist, hip thrust, hip thrust, tail snap, turn, hip thrust, hip thrust, eye contact, smarmy-overconfident smolderingly handsome smile-that-said-he-knew- _exactly_ -what-was-going-on-with-him-and-his-tigress-and-your-so-screwed-because-you-have-no-idea-what-you're-in-for-and-she's-gonna-have-you-wrapped-around-her-claw-and-lead-you-around-with-her-tail-like-its-your-leash-for-the-rest-of-your-life,-good-luck-pal,-hope-your-happy-with-her-because-you're-doomed, tail snap, _**wink**_ , side step, spin, arch, hip snap _and_ shake, _**smirk**_ ,…

The smirk so patronizing it was like the tiger had reached out and patted him on the head.

Ralph bristled instantly, his hackles coming up and a low full fang showing snarl aimed right back at the tiger dancer, one that shouted You-couldn't-do-better-in-a-million-years,-nobody-could-do-better!-I've-chased-her,-I've-caught-her,-and-she's- _mine_!-The-best-tigress-in-the-world,-the-best-mammal-in-the world-and-she's- _mine_ ,-she- _loves_ -me!-And- _I_ ,-Mr.-Smug-Tiger-on-Top-of-the-World,- _I'm_ -just-a-wolf-you-puffed-up-pretty-boy!-So-take-that-smugness-and- _stuff-it_!-You-and-the-rest-of-the-world-have-already-lost;-I'll-love-her-so-much,-make-her-so-happy-that-it'll-make-whatever-happiness-you-find-in-life-look-pale-and-bland.-Suck-it-loser!

Nadine, alerted by his suddenly stiff and hostile posture let go of his shoulder, and began quickly looking around with a hint of panic to her movements just like she had earlier when scanning for his parents. She spotted the tiger dancer on stage he was snarling at, and relaxed slightly.

Side step, side step, twirl, fist pump, tail snap, paws on hips and shake, smoldering-know-it-all-grin, another _**wink**_ ,

Nadine huffed, and Ralph snarled.

Hip shake, hip shake and strut walk, quick sly look to the other dancer that said Hey!-check-out-those-two!, (Ralph's lip curled, his snarl deepening) hip shake and twisting turn timed with the other dancers movements. Double fist pump, low arch, tail snap, turn and rise, Oh-that's-so-cute!-Look-at-the-two-of-them! grin, hip shake, returned _I-know!_ smirk from the first tiger as they both spun, lining up on the stage and started moving in unison with the other two dancers on the other side of the stage.

One paw on hip, head tilt up, slow hip snap with a tail flick, reverse paw and head tilt, slow snap in the other direction, Smoldering charming smile sweep across crowd, ( _Snarl_ ) hip snap, hip snap, Oh-that's-adorable!-look-how-protective-of-her-he-is!-That's-puppy-love-for-you! crowd teasing smirk in their direction, hip snap, hip snap, low spin, grinning almost snicker from the other tiger, _Oh-I-think-it's-worse-than-puppy-love,-just-watch-this…_ slow turn and smoldering half lidded glance in their direction, in _Nadine_ 's direction to be precise. A smugly confident look that said _Hey-Girl,-what-are-_ _ **you**_ _-doing-tonight?_

Ralph's vision might have gone a bit red at that look. He wanted to go up there and wipe that look of that tigers face, then feed it to him! He _was_ going to do that in fact; glance at _his_ Nadine like that?! That tiger was a dead tiger, he just didn't know it yet!

Ralph let out a full snarled that thankfully was covered up by the noise of the crowd and swore he'd teach that tiger a lesson he'd never forget as soon as he could figure out how to get past the arms holding him in place.

There was a chastising nip on Ralph's ear and he stopped struggling long enough to realize it was Nadine holding him tightly.

" _Ralphhhhh…_ " Nadine said in a low growl, then placed her forehead against his and bumped him slightly muttering, "We _can't_ go beat up Gazelle's dancers…"

"But!" Ralph started saying, a deep growl still in his voice.

"It would wreck Judy and Nick's mission, and more importantly Clawhauser and Judy would never forgive us if we beat up Gazelle's dancers, especially _during_ a _**Gazelle**_ concert!" Nadine replied, then added growlishly, "He was baiting you Ralph." and shot a very unamused glare over her shoulder toward the stage. The tiger only sent a smug wink back her way.

" _But!_ " Ralph tried again his growl growing. It was cut off as Nadine let out an irritated huff at the stage, and then while still glaring at the tiger, let out a long resonating _**Purr**_ and licked the tip of Ralph's muzzle.

Ralph shut up, his mood suddenly far _far_ better than it had been a few seconds earlier, though while his mouth had decided to stop talking his tail took that as a sign to start wagging madly.

A slight blush rolled across Nadine's cheeks as a goofy grin started spreading across his muzzle and she made a visible effort to tone down her purr while the two tiger dancers on stage actually snickered for a second before falling back into their routine, though there was a whole conversation in the slight glances and grins they shared with each other.

 _Did-you-see-that?!_ Smirk, hip snap, side step, tail flick.

Turn, tail flick, grin, _Oh-that-was-Priceless!-Absolutely-priceless! The way he got all protective until she told him not to worry!_

Paws on hips and shake, _that was just…just…adorable!_ Smug laughing smile, _Ohhh, let me try! I want to see how she reacts to this then!_

With the next turn the tiger gave a look of such refined confidence that promised a night you'd never forget, in their direction that a few mammals nearby let out fangirl sighs and one even collapsed, fanning themself as if the look had been too much. Nadine on the other hand, went completely stiff; Absolutely utterly still, as the tiger aimed that look at Ralph.

Ralph turned up his nose and stuck out his tongue in a disdainful _Not even in your dreams!_ reply. Then he looked back at Nadine…

"Uh-oh…" Ralph muttered, eyes suddenly going a bit wide, "Nadine, _**Nadine**_!" he tightened his grip on her quickly, "You _can't_! Remember?! Clawhauser would be sad! He might even cry! You don't want to make Clawhauser cry would you? Come on Nadine, you're the only tiger for me, the only _mammal_ I'll ever want." Ralph said quickly, holding onto Nadine tightly as all her muscled seemed to tense in preparation to spring and her frosty, nearly completely savage glare toward the stage focused solely on the two other tigers. "Come on Nadine, that's not fair, why do you get to go wallop them when I not allowed?!" Ralph asked almost desperately and nipped her chin like she had his ear.

The two dancers weren't shooting smug glances their way anymore, instead as they continued the choreographed dance routine their charming smiles now seemed a bit nervous as they glanced at each other

Twist and shake, hip thrust, turn, _Too-much?,_ nervous grin,

Paws out, hip wiggle, tail snap, _Yep,-_ _ **way**_ _-too-much,-Must-be-newly-mated-and-she's-in-heat,-come-on,-time-for-an-escape.-Quickly!_ Head tilt,

Nadine's whiskers twitched at Ralph's bite but she didn't break eye contact with the two dancers as they quickly looked away and turned continuing their hip swaying movements, moving in unison with the two tigers on the other side of the stage back toward the center where Gazelle was.

"Nadine?" Ralph asked nervously, and as a last resort to stop her from dismantling the two tigers, prepared to boop her nose. He was a bit hesitant to do so, considering what had happened last time he'd done that and what he'd learned about what _that_ little action meant to tigers. But if nothing else, it might be enough to distract Nadine away from a murderous rage.

Nadine's glare followed the two until they were back in the center of the stage and no longer anywhere near them. There was one last set of nervous looks back in their direction and Nadine let out a loud dismissive chuff that clearly said, _That's right, and stay away! He's Mine!_

"Better now?" Ralph asked and Nadine turned her head back to him before letting out a long sigh. Then she leaned her head against his shoulder tiredly.

"You know," Nadine began slowly after a moment, head still resting on him as she made an ambiguous gesture with a paw, "This is all your fault. I about lost it, well lost it again… _again_ again?... Gahh I'm losing track, I can't even remember how many times I've almost lost it today! Your fault, Completely _your_ fault Ralph!"

Ralph couldn't help the silly grin that broke out across his face. Nadine huffed pulling her head back enough to look him in the eyes and raised a paw pointing a claw at his nose.

"That's a rebuke Ralph! Stop grinning like that when I'm trying to be mad at you!" Nadine scolded ineffectually, gesturing at him with her finger, "I'm telling you you're being a bad wolf! A very bad wolf! Stop that!" Nadine's voice was getting a little high, " _Bad_ Wolf!"

Even if he'd wanted to, Ralph wouldn't have been able to stop smiling, not with the shift towards sweet her scent had taken. He growled again, that low deep possessive growl, that had just a bit of challenge in it and he leaned in booping his nose against her outstretched finger.

"I like it when you call me a _bad_ wolf," Ralph mumbled, and her scent spiked _hard_.

"Ralph! I- Damnit! _Ralph!_ " Nadine stammered, jerking back her now shaking paw, "That's not fair, stop with the wolf eyes… stop using _That_ Look!" Nadine actually backed up a step her whole body shaking, and grabbed him on both shoulders as he took a step forward to follow.

"Oh gods," She muttered quickly breaking eye contact and holding him a step away from her, "oh gods, stupid blasted wolfy look! Damnit Ralph!" She looked up, then down immediately as her breath hitched.

"Ralph, crap, we can't keep doing this! We _need_ to talk!" Nadine's voice was nervous and fearful but completely serious, and the low rumbling possessive growl in Ralph's throat died as he snapped back to the present. "We _really_ need to talk, One of us is going to _completely_ lose it if we don't talk and sort this out… _**damnit**_." Nadine muttered and closed her eyes as if wishing _really_ hard that she could have avoided this very moment.

* * *

 _~And I'm on tonight you know my hips don't lie~_

 _~And I am starting to feel you boy~_

 _~Come on lets go, real slow~_

 _~Don't you see baby asi es perfecto!~_

Judy, along with half the crowd pitched in on the refrain of the song, as the lights played across the stadium's floor and lit up the stage with all the singers and dancers, Gazelle centered among them.

And Judy _danced_. She couldn't help it. She wouldn't have been able to stop herself even if she wanted to! Gazelle, _the_ Gazelle, the one and only _Gazelle_ was right _there_ singing one of her favorite songs!

Judy only barely managed to hold back a squeal Clawhauser would have been proud of and she couldn't help but think of how much fun this was going to be to talk with the cheetah the next time she saw him at the precinct.

She let out a giggle.

 _And if talking to Benji is going to be fun, then I can't wait to tell everyone at home about it! Jessica is going to be sooo jealous!_ She giggled again thinking of her sister that she loved, but sometimes also hated. For how much they looked alike, they were opposites in just about every other way. Jessica had been the socialite, fashionista, and prom queen while she'd been the overachiever, athlete and somewhat odd bunny out of the popular groups. (though that might have had something to do with her 'police officer obsession'). But her 'obsession' had paid off and now she was living a life she had only ever dreamed of before, complete with _seeing Gazelle sing live! Twice now!_

Jessica was going to turn purple with envy, Judy thought giggling, she might just have to actually get her sister some tickets to the next concert to make up for it. Only after she'd had a bit of fun tweaking her sisters nose though, Serendipity knew she had it coming.

Judy looked back at the stage as the music continued and the lights flashed, only to be amplified by the pyrotechnics choreographed with the performance.

Feeling too excited to stay in one spot, she tried bouncing even higher and shook her hips in time to the music. Judy looked around at the sheer variety of mammals in the crowd and grinned. Bunnyburrow had its own dance events. There was the Carrots Day Festival and family parties (mostly weddings), but it was _nothing_ like this.

Not to bash her hometown, she enjoyed going home to visit and participate, had even been able to convince Nick to come along with her. (He couldn't live his entire life without leaving zootopia after all, it had been for his own good) But Bunnyburrow dances were more… sedate? No… that wasn't entirely true. A lot of the music there was older and not soup high beat, and square dancing while fun, was far more restrictive than this, but once the night got late and the moonshine started getting passed about, those slow country dances could become quite riotous. It was just more… country. That was the best way she could describe it.

It just had a different flavor. A different tempo, even when the dancing got wild.

The closest she'd ever been to something like this was during her high school dances. It probably had to do with being a younger generation so the music was more varied and the mammals more eager to try something different. But it was more like they'd all been trying to copy something they'd only ever seen in gossip magazines and on TV.

Then there was also the fact that at any Bunnyburrow dance, highschool and otherwise it was almost entirely _bunnies_. Judy considered how she was dancing right now and knew she was being hypocritical, but bunnies had a tendency to lean toward just a few forms of dancing, even the energetic younger generations barely more willing to try something new.

Over all there was your square dancing, your classic slow dance, and finally, hop around like mad as if the dance floor was a room full of jumping beans.

Judy snickered thinking back to her prom and the mosh pit that had formed. Some of the teachers chaperoning the event had been expecting it and came wearing padded football gear.

Here though, there was just about every mammal she'd ever heard of at this concert, and the variety of ways in which they all were dancing was astounding. Granted for this song, most of that involved a lot hip and tail shaking, but still it was just so different and active and awesome!

And here, her admittedly more standard bunny bouncy dancing was far more unique and different. But maybe she could pick up a few new dance moves to show off the next time she was home.

Judy thought back to her prom and couldn't help but think how this was ten thousand times better.

First, there simply was no comparing recorded music to live.

 _Especially when its Gazelle!_ _ **SQUEEEEEEEEEE**_ _!_

Judy couldn't help herself, it was _Gazelle_ after all.

Second, There were no chaperones.

Granted that really was a necessity for a highschool dance in Bunnyburrow. Best sex ed program around or not, that much excitement mixed with teenage bunnies full to the brim with hormones all packed into a small gym and some of them were bound to start pairing off with their crushes and trying to sneak out to the bleachers or somewhere else private. And while protection worked nearly all the time… that just meant that it was only a matter of time until it didn't. That and… well, _bunnies_.

They really were good at multiplying.

And while bunnies might be a bit more casual about playing the field while they dated, family was a whole other story. Shotgun weddings might be a bit of a trope in the big city but not so much in Bunnyburrow.

So Judy couldn't really fault the school for chaperoning the dances so heavily, not that _she'd_ have ever needed it of course. _She'd_ never let her hormones push her into something she didn't want. Nor would she ever sleep with someone unless she was sure they might have a chance at something together. And even _then_ , she was _carrot picking_ sure going to take every precaution.

But it wasn't just the school dances and prom (Not that she had even had to worry about that since her date had ended up leaving for the night with Kathrin Shortail… and ended up marrying her right after graduation, her already expecting. Well, they both had failed the sex ed course and that's what you got for deciding to chance it anyway when you hadn't prepared.) but even the town's festival dances had a sort of pseudo chaperones, what with all your neighbors and everyone else watching and the expectations of propriety enforced by the threat of becoming the next piece of small town gossip (which any small town raised mammal rightly knew to fear). And _forget_ about really being able to let your ears up and tail wiggle at a family dance where you had your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and every other family member watching.

No, bunnies had their customs to keep themselves in check, otherwise that sign outside the Bunnyburrow train stop might not be so much of a small town joke and the bunny hoards would have conquered the world.

But none of that applied here! And for once Judy felt free to really let herself loose.

 _~I know I'm on tonight~_

 _~My hips don't lie and I am starting to feel it's right~_

 _~All the attraction, the tension~_

 _~Don't you see baby, this is perfection~_ _ **~Gazelle! Gazelle!~**_

The music thundered out from the speakers across the dancing crowd and Judy whooped, grinning in delight and danced away with everything she had, bouncing up and down, swaying her hips and letting her tail shake more than was strictly proper for a young doe to do in public. Not that there were any old croons here to scoff and titter behind upraised paws and gasp, 'oh the _impropriety!_ '.

Just for those little old biddies, Judy perked her little puff tail and flicked it. And not just a little flick. No she cocked her hips as she bounced and _flicked_ it. Strutting her stuff. Not that there was anyone to see, but just because she _could_. Judy grinned, delighted at the sense of exhilaration and freedom it gave her, then did it again.

Then once more with even more vigor, just because she could.

She felt alive. She felt right. She felt just like the song described. She felt on, and energized, and ready to face the world. Police officer _and_ Bunny and carrot picking proud of it!

Oh yes, this was a million times better than any dance at home or even her prom.

She was part of a crowd the likes of which was the stuff of fairytales to most at her little country home. She was free to dance with all the enthusiasm she wanted with no one to tell her otherwise, and she was here with her best friend.

That above all else made this the best ever.

"Hey Nick, come on! Why aren't you dancing yet?" Judy called back to him, then after a few seconds without a response rolled her eyes and decided that maybe he just need some more encouragement, like maybe another hip bump or two.

She bounced up turning turning her head to see him, intending to hop over and give him a nudge, but only then noticed that Nick's attention seemed to be completely diverted as he stared a bit slack jawed…

Stared right at _her_ …

More precisely...

Right toward were her perked tail was…

* * *

Bounce… Bounce… _perk!…_ Bounce… Bounce… _flick!..._ Bounce…

Nick stared at the puff in front of him feeling like his brain was misfiring. There should have been all sorts of sly thoughts and cunning ideas whizzing through his mind like usual. But somewhere between one side of his brain and the other, thoughts stopped and backed up to see what his eyes where showing him.

Bounce… Bounce… _flick!..._ Bounce…

Fox's were supposed to be into long thick luxurious tails. Tails that a vixen might sway in smooth elegant and enticing motions that tods swore could drive any male mad. This… this was not that…

No.

Smooth?

Ha.

The way her tail bounced with her hopping motion was certainly not 'smooth'. Enthusiastic, energetic, spiritedly? Absolutely. But not smooth.

So that was a no.

And elegant?

Bounce… Bounce… _flick!..._ Bounce…

Some part of him said no; that it _technically_ wasn't. The rest of his mind thought that was utter bullshit and was pulling up his mental dictionary in outrage and confusion to double check the definition of the word

Flip, flip, flip, elected… electric… elegance! There it was.

 _Elegance:_

 _a. refined grace or dignified propriety : urbanity…_ Well that was stupid. Mammals could go stuff their stuffy stuck up thoughts about 'urbanity'.

 _b. dignified gracefulness or restrained beauty of style…_ Well… the 'beauty of style part' sure fit… but restrained didn't… her and her tail was more like an explosion of movement. And dignified and graceful… well maybe not so much with dignified. He'd argue graceful though… okay maybe not in the traditional sense but _he_ thought so.

 _c. tasteful richness of design or ornamentation; scientific precision, neatness, and simplicity_

 _HA_! His mind screamed pointing at the last part of the definition.

 _See?! Take a look at that tail! It's not 'long' but the sheer simplicity of it is what makes it elegant! Look at the perfect precision of it! Look how it curves to that tip. Look at that perfect symmetry and how it's placed perfectly above that butt and those hips! A perfect heart shaped rear like that shouldn't be covered up with some long tail! No! That puff is the_ _ **perfect**_ _tail for her! 'Tasteful richness of design or ornamentation? Well there you are! That's exactly what that is! Hold on a second, need to add a mental picture of that to the dictionary aaaand…there. Now, where was I? Oh yes, the gods got it right when they paired that tail with those legs and that butt. Anyone of them is flawless on their own, but together? Mammals should_ _ **weep**_ _at such a sight! The utter Perfection of that simple tail sitting there! And the shape… why it would fit perfectly into your cupped paw like it was made for it. That is elegance. And the fur! Have you_ _ **ever**_ _seen fur so fine or soft? She already pushes the limits of soft fur… but that tail… that tail is something else… it looks soft enough to float on the clouds. And the color… that pure whiter-than-the-newest-snow color framed by that subtle gray. That tail is a masterpiece. A one of a kind. Something the likes of which the eyes of mammals will never see again. It should be treasured, worshiped. All should grovel before such pure elegance… hummm… okay, panting is also acceptable._

 _And that_ _ **flick**_ _! *Sigh* I can die happy now… such beauty with such little movement… Nothing…_ _ **nothing**_ _in the world could be so elegant as that…_

There was a moment of simple quite appreciation as all of the thoughts in Nick's head focused on watching the tail bouncing in front of him.

Bounce… Bounce… _flick!..._ Bounce…

 _Still just one part of three on the definition soooo, no?_

There was an angry uproar in Nick's mind at whatever part had voiced that.

To be fair though, even if he thought it was the most elegant thing he'd ever seen, it wasn't classically elegant, not to foxes.

And that was part of the problem that was causing the backup in his mind.

It wasn't a tail that any fox would look at.

So why was it _so damn enticing_?

It _called_ to him. It twitched like a mammal crooking a finger saying, 'Come closer', and he would have if he wasn't too dumbstruck by the sight to move.

Nick was only aware of the concert around him in the vaguest sense, but one thing that seemed to penetrate the background periphery of his thoughts was the music. Her tail moved to the music, bobbing up and down and side to side as she danced swaying her hips with each hop. That puff bounced before him almost like it was bouncing over the words of the song in some karaoke-type subtext, but he was to distracted with the perfection of the fluffy puff before him to care about the actual words to the song.

He wanted to touch that bit of soft perfection, caress it, kiss it, maybe give it the gentlest of nips. But he couldn't. That would be sacrilege. To reach forth and touch a thing of sheer beauty was wrong. It was not his to do so with. He was not allowed. To do otherwise without invitation was taboo…

But…

But he could watch it… he could look at it and marvel at it… couldn't he?

Because he wanted to watch that tail forever…

"Hey Nick, come on! Why aren't you dancing yet?"

All the other foxes were stupid if they didn't think a tail like that was beautiful…

Bounce… Bounce… _flick!..._ Bounce…

He could watch that tail forever… _wait! No! It's turning away… I'll lose my view of that perfect tail! NO! Come Back! Please! Noooooooooooooo…_

Something in Nick felt like crying as the world's most perfect tail vanished from his sight, but something else in his mind was beating an alarm, screaming at him to get a grip on himself or the world and that tail along with it might end.

His mind felt sluggish as it tried to reorient, focus, start to actually think again.

That perfect little tail was just hiding around the side of that perfectly curved hip turning toward him… maybe he could sneak around to see it again?... but that hip was quite nice too, curvy without being fat and it lead up to a slim lithe waist and a petite chest that gave the hint of two perfectly proportioned small breasts hiding under the shirt and from there, a face with an adorable button nose and long upright ears edged with darker fur at the top.

Something about those ears fascinated him almost as much as the tail… the fur on them seemed _almost_ as soft as her tail and he wanted to leap on them, rub them against his cheek, maybe give them a teasing set of nips right on their edge… and the way they moved, always expressing emotions. Right now seeming to broadcast happiness and excitement except they were stiffening with a sort of surprised shock… why were they doing that?

Nick started to frown as he contemplated that while the elegant mammal in front of him continued to turn mid bounce only to land in front of him.

She stuck the landing but seemed to wobble just slightly. Not one of her best, but he'd seen _far_ worse by others.

 _8.0, 7.6, 8.2,_ three judges in his mind raised up scoring cards for the landing while others cheered in the background regardless of the less than perfect score she'd gotten (this time).

Everything around Nick still seemed to be going just as slowly as his sluggish barely functioning thoughts, right up until he saw the two purple eyes looking at him in shock.

Purple was too base a word for the color, lavender was better but still failed to fully express how pretty they were. But for the first time in… Nick wasn't sure how long (since the song had started?), his mind suddenly broke through its blockage and started thinking very _very_ fast.

 _Oh crap._

He'd been ogling Judy. Ogling her openly. Not even with a hint of slyness, certainly not in a way she might _not_ notice. No. He'd been standing there like an idiot, open mouthed, thinking thoughts he absolutely should _not_ have-

 _Recriminations later!_ Screamed the hustler in his mind, _Act NOW!_

Nick's paw flew up to his open muzzle and he coughed violently like he'd inhaled something.

* * *

Judy landed a bit off balance, only for Nick to start coughing, quickly turning away from her.

Judy stared for a second, momentarily frozen, wondering if she'd just seen what she'd thought she'd seen.

 _Was he looking at-_

 _No, you must have imagined that…_

 _His jaw was hanging lose!_

 _His mouth was open because he was about to cough!_

 _But he was_ _ **staring**_ _!_

 _You just want him to have been staring!_

Nick looked up for a second and caught _her_ now staring dumbfoundedly at _him_ only to snap his head to the side again and let out a few more coughs.

 _See that! His ears! The inside of his ears were darker! He was Blushing! That's twice now! He blushed earlier too! Once is coincidence, twice is a pattern!_

 _The sun's going down, of course things look darker! That was just a shadow!_

 _No, that was-_

Nick let out one more wracking cough.

 _Check to make sure Nick's alright first, you Dumb Bunny! Then you can keep arguing with yourself about what you may or may not have seen!_

"You all right there, Slick?" Judy stepped next to Nick and put her paw on his back as he coughed, only to feel him tense as she touched her.

"Yep, fine, just a second…" he said as he coughed again, looking over at her. "Just…" his nose flared a bit, and his eyes seemed to start to drift downwards before then jerking to the side, "Just… swallowed a fly that's all!"

"A fly?" Judy asked. That seemed… unlikely…

Nick was acting a bit odd, granted he'd been a little off his game since winter had started but this was odder than normal.

Judy's eyes narrowed ever so slightly…

 _I think he WAS staring!_

Nick looked back at her and if her paw had not still been on his back and felt him tense, she might have missed the alarm that shot through him as his eyes met hers briefly.

"Right, a fly. Swallowed a fly!" Nick repeated his eyes darting to the side, seeming to look for something before stopping. "See, group of Yaks over there," he pointed. "Probably a fly that was hanging out in their hair. Don't know why yaks think being 'naturalists' means you shouldn't bath often."

Judy spared the group a he was pointing at a quick look. It was a group of yaks, but they didn't have the same frumpy look or tangle of hair Yax did. Granted the light here wasn't great and Nick could see better than her… but…

 _He's trying to cover!_ Her cop instincts insisted. Master Hustler Nick might be, but she'd been around him long enough to start seeing through his deceptions. That and it helped that he wasn't at the peak of his game.

 _He_ _ **was**_ _staring at my tail and I caught him, and he's trying to cover!_

Even the pessimistic wary side of her stopped to consider it.

 _Maybe… maybe not though…_

 _Holy jumping jalapeno flavored Carrot sticks! Nick was staring at me?! At my tail! That she-wolf was right?!_

Judy felt a thrill go through her. If Nick _had_ been sneaking a look at her… that meant he really _did_ find something about her attractive…

Nick was her friend, her _best_ friend, but she'd never imagined he'd ever consider her anything but that. Didn't think that there'd ever even be a possibility of it. Why would he, _a fox_ , be interested in her, _a bunny_?!

Sure _she_ liked him, but she wasn't a normal bunny. That had been made abundantly clear to her all her life, but Nick… Nick wasn't odd like her, he was… he was, Nick. The cool, suave, sometimes sarcastic fox that had a hidden heart of gold; the fox that made his way through the city with an ease that still seemed to baffle her sometimes.

But…

He's been _staring_ …

If he did, did that mean he might…

And if he _does…_

Well, that opened a whole new set of possibilities…

Though there was still that stupid Foxy Lady, part of Judy growled internally. Just the thought of how someone could reject Nick ate at her, not to even mention all the other emotions it made her feel that she tried hard to ignore.

Envy wasn't a pleasant emotion, but she couldn't help feeling it whenever she thought about Nick's vixen. About the fact that he was in love with someone else.

Although… was it really love? How did Wolfords mother put it? Was it _True_ Love? Was it true love if Nick had been eyeing other girls?

Eyeing _her_.

 _That_ didn't seem like the Nick she knew. Yes he'd been a hustler, but Nick had _class_. His ideas of right and wrong might be a little more flexible than hers, certainly more flexible than a strict reading of the ZPD rules, but for all his 'flexibility' there were parts of him that wouldn't give at all. Bend the rules, yes; break them, no. Prank and tease his friends; yes, hurt them, no. Flirt shamelessly in his charming good natured way, Serendipity **yes**. Go around eyeing up mammals when he'd promised himself to someone? she couldn't see him doing it. It just wasn't Nick.

Which meant…

 _He might_ _ **not**_ _be truly in love with her…_

Though that didn't seem quite right either.

She could remember how he looked when she'd questioned him about his feelings and how he'd been acting this winter. She'd _seen_ how much pain that vixen's rejection was costing him. She would have bet everything she had seen that in him. That Nick had really truly loved his Foxy Lady.

The two points seemed like a paradox, both contradicting the other. But there was no way both could be true. _One_ of them had to be wrong.

If Nick truly loved, not just _liked_ , that vixen, he _wouldn't_ have been sneaking glances at her.

But Nick _did_ love that Foxy Lady. She was sure of that too.

Wasn't she?

There was a seed of doubt there now. She was questioning what she remembered, wondering if just _maybe_ she'd interpreted his emotions wrong. She didn't think so… but it might be possible. And she _wanted_ it to be possible…

Plus she was certain she'd caught him staring.

Hadn't she?

 _Well there is a way I could find out…_ Judy thought, thinking through the situation with the precision she applied to her job.

 _Oh no, No!_ _ **That**_ _is not a good idea!_ Some other part of her thought with a bit of alarm, _This is the kind of half cocked plan that makes Bogo want to rip off his horns!_

 _Hey! My plans usually work!_

 _Usually is the key word! You know the Chief would be against some risky, half thought through plan like this!_

 _Well… The Chief isn't here right now, is he?_ Judy thought a bit petulantly to herself, a nervous thrill of rebellious excitement flashing through her.

* * *

"Can you see them? What are they doing? They haven't kissed yet have they?! I don't want to miss it when they do!" Bess said from beside Bogo, having stopped dancing to stand on her toes to see over the crowd.

"Blast that group of yaks, they've blocked my view! I can't see where they went! Dear, how _by_ _Ferdinand_ , do you keep track of mammals that small at work?!" Bess whined, shifting again to try and get a view on his charges.

Bogo, mood much improved now that they were at the concert, shrugged.

"Bess, _that_ , is just _one_ of the reasons those two cause me such headaches."

"But what if we lose them in the crowd?!" Bess asked worriedly and he snorted.

"Dear, just watch for a commotion. Wherever the chaos seems worst is where those two always are."

* * *

 _Just because The Chief isn't here, doesn't mean you should do it!_

 _This is_ _ **Nick**_ _! How am I supposed to find out if not by hustling him?!_ Judy thought in return trying to assuage her worries.

 _Ya… But what if it backfires?_

 _Backfires_ _ **how**_ _?_ Judy defended. It was a good plan, a logical plan, a plan she'd never _ever_ try in Bunnyburrow. The excitement was mixing with her worries and if she didn't do something and _soon_ she was going to burst, _If it doesn't work, then I'm no worse off than I am now! If it fails, it'll go right over his head and I'll know he wasn't looking!_

 _Wait! Think this through! Don't leap before you look!_

But Judy had already nodded to herself, mind made up, and was moving.

"Well Nick," Judy said poking him in the side and actually making him jump in surprise. "We're not here to stand around and choke on flies. Come on, it's still a bit crowded here and there's a better spot over there where you won't choke on any _flies_ , plus we need to keep an eye on Ralph and Nadine like the chief said."

Judy took his paw and turned leaving him no option but to follow her as she zigged their way past a few mammals to be closer to the tiger and wolf.

 _Okay… okay… deep breaths Judy, you can do this,_ she reassured herself.

She had no trouble throwing herself into fights with mammals far larger than herself, but doing what she was about to do, _on purpose_ , was something else entirely.

 _Come on! You've seen Jessica do this a thousand times before to bucks, it can't be that hard! He's following right behind you, Just one little…_

Judy shoved all her worries aside and _Flicked_ her tail, giving it a nice little shake. Something that she might _just_ be able to play off as a natural twitch and not a clear pass at the mammal behind her.

 _O M G… I did it,_ _ **I did it**_ _! Now one more… *Flick* and_ _ **casually**_ _look over your shoulder to see how he reacts…"_

Nick _wasn't_ looking at her.

Disappointment flooded Judy like a tidal wave, only to suddenly retreat as she took a second, more careful glance at him.

He was _pointedly_ not looking at her…

Her free falling hopes for the impossible suddenly caught an updraft, though whether that was lifting them or just slowing their descent she wasn't sure.

 _Is he not looking or 'Not looking'?_

 _I mean he's_ _ **really**_ _not looking, not even a sly not looking or a 'I don't care' not looking. Not looking could actually mean he was looking, right? Like a False Negative rather than a true negative or was I just imagining a false positive before? Carrot sticks, this is complicated! Why does it have to be so complicated! I aced the academy's forensic statistics class, I should be able to figure out if it was a false negative of not! Wait, Ralph and Nadine are in the direction he's looking! Maybe he's just doing what the Chief told us to do?! That was so stupid of me to think that he might- might…_ Judy's hopes started pluminting again and she shook her head trying to stop her plummeting mode, _Ralph and Nadine, right, I shouldn't be daydreaming! I should be watching them too-_

 _You should watch where you're going!_ Shouted some warning in her mind.

Judy turned around just in time to see the leg of a giraffe before she walked right into it.

A jolt of pain shot through her from her nose as it smacked into the leg only to be joined a second later from a jolt as she fell back onto her tail.

"Judy!" Nick shouted worriedly, head snapping back toward her, "What happened? Are you- uh-oh!"

Nick grabbed her under her arm, yanking her up to her feet and back a step right as the mammals hoof moved, coming down right were she'd been.

Judy let out a startled meep, too shocked and caught up with her thoughts to react with her normal speed.

"Carrots! Sheesh you haven't been this clumsy since you almost got trampled when we first met!" Nick bit out, worry tingeing his tone.

"Hey! That wasn't my fault!" Judy blushed remembering the rhino that almost stepped on her on her first day on the force. "You'd distra- Nick! _Move_!"

Judy pulled Nick forward as a long hoof almost hit him from behind, as the _far_ larger mammals, completely oblivious to them, continued to dance with the crowd.

Nick's stumbled forward into her then glanced back at the leg that had almost clobbered him, his eyes going a little wide.

"I thought we were going somewhere _less_ crowded!" Nick said looking up at the two giraffes above them that were watching the concert stage with a clear view above the rest of the crowd.

"Hey there's only _two_ other mammals here! It is technically 'less' crowded!" Judy replied indignantly in a futile attempt to cover up her blunder.

Nick started to give her a look like she was trying to sell him snow insurance in Sahara square, but then pulled her close to him, half spinning her just as another hoof swished past them.

"Yes, but those two mammals are _big_ and are literally right **Here!** " Nick said, spinning her again before pointing to the spot she'd just been standing in, which now was occupied by a rather _big_ hoof.

Judy was trying to think up some rebuttal to that when her mind froze and she acted on instinct, casually reached around Nick's waist and grabbed his tail.

Nick's eyes, already a bit wide with distress, went even wider with shock as she grabbed hold of his _sinfully_ fluffy tail and pulled it around to her side.

"Sorry!" Judy blurted out, her cheeks burning a sudden crimson red as the feel of Nick's fluffy tail seemed to almost seep between her paws and wrap around her leg with its warmth.

There was a _thwump!_ As a hoof came down right were Nick's tail had been and the oh so fluffy fur spiked like a bottle brush in her paw.

"I only grabbed your tail for its own safety!" Judy spluttered, then realized she was still holding his tail and tried to let go.

Then had to try again in order to actually get her paw to obey her mind.

For a moment she thought she still hadn't released it but when she looked down, she found that his tail, even puffed out as it was, was firmly wrapped around her legs.

"I um… sorry. I'll just um…" Judy took a step back afraid that if she stayed there a moment longer with his tail wrapping her leg like that she might do something dumb like grab it and never let go.

Nick's arms shot out grabbing hold of her with predatory swiftness. He pulled her back nearly crushing her against his chest, his strong arms wrapping tightly around her.

Judy's flush flared at the sudden contact, her heartbeat quickening as she heard his own, pressed up against him as she was. Then meeped as she the unmistakable sound of another hoof clomping down behind her.

The hoof though wasn't what had made her meep, in fact in that instant it was almost irrelevant to her. Nor was it the feel of Nick's chest pressed against her or how his arms (and his tail?) seemed to almost protectively clutch her.

No.

She meeped, feeling a sudden hot flush of searing heat start in her belly and scald her cheeks because one of Nick's large strong paws had settled completely over _her_ tail, almost as if he were holding it. Not gripping it harshly but more just cupping it, his paw pads pressed against the sensitive underside of her perked appendage while the rest of his paw completely surrounded it in a way that almost felt like a caress.

Nick moved again, his paw pressing more firmly against her tail as he pulled her with him, moving out of the way of another hoof.

Judy nearly let out a gasp at the sensation, and looked up quickly trying to see if he was doing that intentionally as the feeling in her stomach turned into a flame and her whole body seemed to catch fire.

Nick though, was intently watching the legs around them as the two giraffes continued to excitedly cheer on Gazelle's performance, and with another slight tug on her tail and back, he pulled her along in an almost elegant spin out of the way of another leg.

Judy's paws gripped Nick's shirt as she bit her lip, fighting back against the sensations flooding her. The feel of him so close, of his paw caressing her tail, was sending sparks bursting inside of her and making any sort of coherent thoughts difficult.

"I…um… Nick… I…" Judy started, not even sure of what she was going to say next when Nick interrupted her.

"If you don't mind Carrots, I'd rather _not_ get my tail or _you_ for that matter, stepped on. So how about _I_ pick a spot?" His tone was so normal and relaxed that it all but screamed stress and alarm, and she just nodded dumbly as Nick still held her tight to him and continued to move.

It all seemed like a dream to Judy.

She followed Nick's lead as he seemed to flow smoothly through the crowd, pulling her along amid the stamping, jostling, forest of limbs and hooves like they were at some grand ball. Judy usually took point when things got hairy. She should have taken charge of the situation, moved like it was an obstacle course at the academy, but her mind wasn't working properly amid the conflicting signals of the situation. She was used to how Nick only became more calm as things became more dangerous, a talent she credited as something he'd learned in his hustling days, but then there was his flowing dance like movements amid the fast pace beat of Gazelle's music, the dangerous stomping hooves and paws of the larger mammals above them that moved to the energetic music, unaware of the two smaller mammals weaving their way below them. The way Nick guided her, held her, cupped her _tail_ with his paw, all while every ounce of his attention was focused on their surroundings.

Part of her mind was still analyzing the danger of the mammals over them, telling her to move, to jump, bounce here and then there to get to safety, but it was disconnected. The information visible but undecipherable to her mind as Nick's paws tugged ever so slightly on her and she followed before her mind had even noticed.

First left, then left again before taking a step forward as Nick moved back, only to spin slowly around another hoof. Then a step to the right and dip under a hoof that swished over Nick's head as he leaned forward, his muzzle almost touching her nose as she bent back, Nick holding her off the ground with one paw on her tail and the other on her back. A fleeting moment where she thought he might kiss her as his muzzle brushed her cheek and then they were standing again, spinning again, stepping to the side and out from the forest of yellow and brown splotched legs.

Everything around them seemed to have gone quiet as they stood there now out of immediate danger, Judy's breath coming in deep slow gasps while the tension slowly drained out of the fox she was pressed up against.

"I, that… um… I guess this is a better spot…" Judy murmured almost incoherently, even to herself though the noise of the crowd had quieted while waiting for Gazelle to start her next song.

She felt dazed, confused, too hot, like the arms holding her were emanating a warmth that muddled her mind…

There was an almost growling huff from Nick, something that sounded like an understated agreement, maybe one that should be accompanied by an eye role and maybe a reprimand too. But then Nick looked down at her and Judy froze at the sight of his green eyes. There was something primarily feral that seemed to peak out from behind those brilliant emerald orbs and some instinct deep inside her screamed _Predator!_ It sent shivers through her that scared her on a visceral level even as she felt inexplicably drawn to that menacing danger. Part of her wanted to run, flee, escape from this stronger predatory mammal. Part of her wanted to be caught, wanted to melt into him and let this bigger, agile, and cunning male catch her, to let him have her so long as she could be near him.

She felt paralyzed by her feelings, by those arms holding her. Paralyzed from those two savagely green eyes that seemed to drag her closer to him. Slivers of instinctual terror and adrenaline shot through her, from where his paw had her tail so delicately trapped, to her stomach where it pressed against his front and exploded into a hot furnace.

Judy's breath caught as the heat spread out through her like a firestorm, only to freeze her body in place, the heat surging even more as Nick's nose twitched and his huffish, almost irritated growl turned into a low nearly inaudible vibration that emanated directly from his chest into hers. A sound more felt than heard, utterly feral and predatory and foreign to her, making her feel like prey caught by a predator all too pleased to see what had wandered into his den.

The paws on her back and tail twitched, seeming to press her flush against the firm, leanly muscled stomach and torso of _fox_ before her. The fox with pure green eyes that in that second seemed to turn savage and wild. Judy gasped, her tail giving an involuntary twitch of fear (or something else) against his paw trapping it.

The vibrations seemed to deepen just for a fraction of a second, taking on a very _pleased_ note, even as something else grew, pressing hard against the heat between her legs.

The jolt of that contact was like being struck by a bolt of lightning and before she could clear her mind from the aching thunder that echoed up to the tips of her ears, Nick was standing a step away from her casually examining their surrounds as if nothing had happened.

Judy stared at him, feeling a bit shaky on her feet, now so suddenly unsupported by her fox.

 _Had he…_

His stance was _sooo_ cool and collected that it made her wonder if what had just happened was real or just something from her fevered wishes and overly energetic imagination.

"Well, it might not have the best view of the stage," Nick said waving a paw around. "But at least we aren't likely to end up in the hospital now. As 'awesome' as these gazelle concerts might be," Nick air quoted with his claws, "I think even you and Clawhauser would probably agree it's not worth that."

Judy didn't reply, only stared at Nick, uncertainty and disbelief vying for supremacy in her.

Nick after a moment of waiting for a reply, turned to her with a quizzical expression, only for a fleeting look of _something_ to flash across his face as she just continued to gawk at him.

"What?!" he nearly yipped, his tail puffing slightly in alarm, "I didn't spill part of my blueberry pie on my shirt or something, did I?" he asked, checking his shirt for stains before looking back at her.

His eyes were their same brilliant emerald green, that feral wildness she thought she'd seen hidden away like it had never been there…

Judy wasn't buying it this time; he was _too_ go at hiding things. She ignored the conversational diversion and just stared harder at him.

Nick's fur puffed a bit like a ruffled chicken, and though it was too dark for her to be sure, she thought the fur over his cheeks looked slightly darker.

"Carrots? What's the matter?" Nick asked a bit of fluster breaking through his calm. "Look, I wasn't really mad about you leading us under those giraffes I… I… just got worried! But hey, look!" he gestured pulling at his shirt, "We're fine! Made it through it without even a scratch. Now we can enjoy the rest of the concert! Well enjoy it and make sure Nadine doesn't lose it again." His said pointing a thumb over his shoulder at where the tiger was leaning heavily on the wolf near them.

Judy didn't bother looking at them; Ralph and Nadine seemed calm enough. No, she stared at her partner, who she could have sworn had been on the verge of going savage, maybe even for just that fraction of a moment _had_.

Despite his efforts, Nick seemed to be getting more flustered as she continued to stay quiet and examine him with a discerning eye.

"Hey look," Nick said shifting tactics, and taking on a slightly hurt and indignant air as he crossed his arms, though Judy was sure it was mostly show. "You already know that all my dance moves are old. There's nothing wrong with knowing how to dance properly. A hundred years from now this'll be just fleeting pop music, but mammals will still know traditional dances!"

It was a good performance, Judy had to admit, though the slightly haughty uptilt of his nose at the end of his little melodrama performance might have been overkill.

She only raised an eyebrow questioningly (one ear accompanying it), and was sure she had his attention, letting her sharp deciphering gaze drop down to a slight but noticeable bulge in his pants.

 _Pretty sure_ _ **that's**_ _not my imagination._ Judy couldn't help but think.

Nick let out a quick cough, shifting with the movement in a way that hid the little telltale sign and continued as if she hadn't spotted that.

"I mean, sorry Carrots. As fun as your 'hippity hop' dancing might be, it's got nothing on the classics!" Nick said obstinately, his expression even taking on a slightly demeaning tone that made her want to tell him just how much fun her 'hippty hopping' was and not stop arguing till she'd managed to get him to agree (and maybe try it himself)

But she was sure that was exactly _why_ he'd used that tone.

Nick had slipped up. Not much. But he had and she wasn't going to let him sidetrack her. She was going to dig and dig until she got to the bottom of what he was feeling and found out _exactly_ what thoughts he had secreting away.

She might not be as good as Delgato with police interrogations, what with his 'secret' questioning technique he'd been using so effectively (and had flatly refused to tell her when she'd asked what it was). But she wasn't so bad at it herself. Bogo had given her a few tips after all.

Nick _had_ slipped up and she was going to bring down a hammer on that chink in his suave 'Never let them see that they get to you' attitude till she broke through and found out what all _that_ had just been about.

Planning, theorizing, debating, and deducing was all part of detective work in solving a case, but once you had the suspect before you, all that was irrelevant and it was time to throw down and see who won.

Judy let her other eyebrow and ear join her upraised ones and gave Nick a cop look like she had when she'd confronted him about his pawpsicle hustle.

Then again, that hadn't gone so well, hustler that he was. But she could fight fire with fire. _That_ sure had worked before.

"Right, well, _Slick_ ," she narrowed her gaze at Nick and crossed her arms, then watched as his adams apple bobbed slightly like he might have silently gulped. "If you think your 'classics'," she used her ears to air quote, "are so good, let's see it. I think you've got _nothing_ on my dance moves."

She gave him a dismissive glance to match his haughty one insulting her dancing and turned as Gazelle started in on another song.

The stage shifted as Gazelle took her spot, her support dancers taking station as the center portion of the stage rose up in tiered levels. And this time, instead of pyrotechnics accompanying the start of the song, it was water jets that burst upwards around the edge of the stage, set in troughs that separated it from the crowds .

Nick looked almost relieved for a second, like he might have escaped getting a speeding ticket after getting pulled over.

 _Oh no you don't, I'm not letting all that go so easily! I want some answers!_

Judy grinned back at Nick, and his relieved expression morphed to one of distinct worry right before she join in with the crowd dancing to the music, giving her tail a subtle little flick.

 _~Lucky you were born that far away so~_

 _~We could both make fun of distance~_

 _~Lucky that I love a foreign land for~_

 _~The lucky fact of your existence~_

Subtle or not, Nick's eyes glanced downward for just the briefest moment.

 _Well pickle me like a cucumber_ , Judy thought, grinning almost evilly to herself. _Maybe Ralph's mother did notice something I'd missed. I might have to go talk to her to find out more about canines… carefully though. She's one scarily devious she-wolf…_

 _~Baby I would climb the Andes solely~_

 _~To count the fur on your body~_

 _~Never could imagine there were only~_

 _~Ten million ways to love somebody~_

Nick gulped visibly as Judy sashayed her hips and _flicked_ her tail several more times. Then, glanced back at the stage, then at Judy, then over at Ralph and Nadine as if afraid they might have seen.

Judy used his moment of distraction to hop over and bump him.

"Come on, I thought you said I had nothing on you," she taunted, turning and bouncing up in front of him so that for a moment she was eye level with her fox, and in that brief moment, gave him a penetrating stare clearly warning that he wasn't going to slip anything by _her_.

Nick's mask cracked as he swallowed hard, and she bounced over to his other side and bumped him again.

 _What are you hiding Nick?_ Judy thought as he almost jumped at the contact, _You've been in a mood all winter over this foxy lady of yours, so why are you glancing...no...STARING...at me? I've known you for well over a year now and you don't have wandering eyes._

"For all the bragging about your dancing skills I'm not seeing much," Judy said circling him to try bumping his other hip again. Something was up with Nick. Judy could sense it; _had_ been sensing it all day. For much longer than that actually, but it had been _much_ more noticeable today. Nick had been on edge since they met up this morning where she'd had that run in with Leaps. He'd been covering well, had truly enjoyed being at the park with her today, but even still, whatever it was he was hiding away from her, it had been dogging him like a shadow.

Nick had opened up to her just enough that she knew it had to do with the vixen he'd been pinning after, but she couldn't help wondering now how _she_ might fit into that whole mess of his emotions.

The thought both terrified and exhilarated her.

He was a fox, she was a _bunny_ … but she was also his best friend.

There were times when the best thing a friend could do was leave something be, but then there were also times when the best thing was for a friend to push, to make it clear that there were other people that cared for them too.

Judy love Nick. She couldn't help how she felt about him. Even if he ended up with some stupid vixen, she'd still love him, still strive to be his best friend. She'd _always_ want more than that, but she wanted him to be happy most of all. And this moody Nick was not a happy Nick. It had gone on long enough. She didn't like seeing how one moment he could be having a good time, how he'd be smiling, actually truly smiling, and then some thought he was hiding away would slip out and his smile would fade, only to be replaced by the hustler smile he showed to the rest of the world.

It was time to push.

 _Way_ past time.

And anyway, _he'd_ glanced at _her_. _That_ gave her a right to dig into his business.

And bunnies were good at burrowing.

Judy took careful aim at Nick and gave him her best shot.

"Come on Nick," she bounced over, hip checking him lightly again, and right when he glanced at her she give just the barest flick of her tail, just to try throwing him a bit off his guard. "Forget about what Clawhauser is going to do when he finds out you just stood around at a gazelle concert. If you can't even impress your best friend with your 'slick' dance moves, how are we ever going to get you to impress your _foxy lady_?" she said pointedly, trying her best to keep any resentment at the vixen out of her voice. "Maybe the issue you've been having with her isn't so much with you being a red fox, but that you've been holding back and she isn't very impressed." Judy gave him a quick glance, looking him up and down, before snorting dismissively.

"As good looking as you are Nick, you're not going to catch your girl if you can't impress her. It's going to take more than a fluffy tail and a charming smirk." Judy smirked back at Nick who'd gone stiff at the mention of his, 'Foxy Lady'. "I might be a doe, not a vixen, but I'd suggest taking my advice." She turned away from him, moving forward a few steps to dance along with the crowd. This time she didn't flick her tail but just kept it perked, wondering how much more pressure she would need to put on Nick before she finally broke through his mask and got a real response. "I'm still a _female_ after all...and _I_ think you can do a lot better than you are now."

She flicked her tail once more, this time the motion matching her disappointed almost dismissive tone.

 _Well, if that doesn't get something from him, I'm not sure what will_... Judy thought to herself. _I need him to really open up if I'm going to figure out what's going on in my dumb fox's head. Pushing every button I could, should probably do it. One of them has to work after all._

She was half expecting Nick to be mad that she'd brought up his love life issues again, that she was pushing him when it was pretty clear he hadn't wanted to talk about it. But she was completely unprepared for the glare she received when she glanced back over her shoulder.

Nick wasn't glaring at her precisely, and he wasn't staring at her tail. No, his eyes had narrowed, a bit of that savage presence she'd sensed before sending tingles up her spine once more as he stared with enough intensity to make her fidget right at the center of her back, as if he was mad he'd ever told her he'd been in love with a Foxy Lady. Then his eyes traveled up and met hers.

"Oh, so you think all I need to do to win over the girl I love is to dance for her? That its as simple as _that,_ **Judy**?" Nick said, his voice growlish. His normal expression masking his emotions was gone and for once Judy could see a slew of emotions clearly crossing over his face. Frayed restraint, irritation, anger, hurt, longing, frustration. Almost too many coming too fast for her to pick out.

Nick's eyes seemed to pin her in place with their intensity, but as clearly pricked by her remarks as he was, he didn't seem to be directing that slew of angry hurt emotions directly at her per se, more like at himself or maybe the world in general.

"I… well… you never know…" Judy said backpedaling a bit and trying to regain her balance. "It… it might help…" She'd wanted to get Nick to open up, but she hadn't quite been prepared for him to open up this much. Nick was displaying _so much_ emotion that it nearly radiated from the usually reserved, in control fox. This was not how she had expected things to go.

Judy almost squeaked as Nick's focus narrowed on her, feeling for once like actual prey spotted by a predator.

"Okay _Judy_. If you think it might help, then how about I show you just what I can do? I'll let _you_ be the judge of whether or not my Foxy Lady might be impressed." He let out a snort and stared pointedly at her tail. " _You_ after all, _are_ a female. That's _abundantly_ clear."

Judy flushed badly.

Okay, so maybe she'd been a bit heavy handed with her tail flicks. She wasn't nearly as practiced at such things as Jessica was.

She swallowed hard trying to think up a way to explain why she'd been teasing him like that only to look up and find that Nick apparently had no intention of giving her a chance to collect herself.

The fox that was before her wasn't the reserved Nick she saw everyday at work, nor was it the emotional fox he kept hidden from the world that had peaked out a moment ago. No, this fox infront of her was something more in the middle. A Nick still in full control of himself but that was letting his emotions show openly. And not just show them, but use them. He hit her with a look that made her flush and her breath catch as he moved toward her, not dancing, just walking with a supple vulpine grace she would never be capable of.

Nick smirked at her, a smirk that held more than his usual teasing. No, this smirk had all the charm and loving teases she was used too from Nick, but underneath that was something more… more… primordial, sexual. Something that made Judy's breath catch as he moved fluidly next to her and whispered into her long ear so that the only thing she could see was _that_ smirk at the edge of his muzzle.

"Think I can't dance do you? Think that I'm not being impressive enough to catch my ladies eye?"

Judy meeped, turning toward Nick but he was already gone, his tail brushing sensually against her legs before his breath caressed her other ear.

"Well, we'll just see about that, _bunny_. I'll show you everything I have, and you can tell me afterwards if you think it's enough to 'impress' her."

Judy's heart started pounded away in her chest as she tried to draw in air. Every warning she'd ever heard about foxes during her childhood surfaced in her mind. About how cunning and dangerous they were and how they'd snatch young bunnies away and snack on them. And while she'd never believed any of that, she started wondering if there might be a grain of truth hidden in there. Not in the way her father probably thought about it though, considering how Nick's voice made her knees tremble and weak.

 _Maybe it hadn't been the brightest idea to prod Nick like that_ , Judy thought belatedly as she whipped around the other way only to bump into the fox infront of her as Gazelle continued to sing in the background.

 _~Lucky that my lips not only mumble~_

 _~They spill kisses like a fountain~_

 _~Lucky that my breasts are small and humble~_

 _~So you don't confuse them with mountains~_

Nick made an amused growling sound that vibrated against Judy as he looked down at her all the while not quite moving to the music as he moved.

"Foxes don't like mountainous frames, leave that to the hippos and elephants. And I rather like small and humble… I think it's far more pretty, not to mention _cute_." Nick grinned openly admiring his view while looking downward.

" _Nick_!" Judy meeped, her face and ears flaming as Nick's not to subtle compliment paired with that ridiculously sexy smirk, wrecked every thought she had going in her mind all at once.

"Yes? That's my name," Nick said, moving around her again, his tail still trailing against her legs like he was binding her in place with chain made of pure fluff. "Oh that's right, you wanted me to show you how I might win my Lady love by dancing. Well Carrots, you see, I don't like to dance alone, so if I'm going to show you, you're going to need to help."

Judy tried to turn to follow Nick but a tug on her paw from her other side stopped her. She looked down in shock to see that her paw was in a larger one. A dark, russet furred one. One that looked exactly like Nick's.

"So, care to dance with me?" Nick asked, his muzzle brushing against her ear from behind again, surprising her and making her squeak.

"No! I Mean _**Yes**_! I mean… I mean… Carrot Sticks! That's not what I meant!" Judy squeaked out, her thoughts too jumbled to think properly and her body feeling like Nick had dipped it in lava.

"Hummm…" Nick's voice rumbled from behind her, closer now. "That's answers a bit hard to decipher… but I'm pretty sure I heard a yes in there." She was still staring at her paw in his and missed how Nick slipped his other paw around her waist. She sure as crickets-come-spring noticed when Nick's whole lean strong frame pressed up against her back though.

It all either happened too fast for her to react, or Judy's mind was in even worse shape than she thought it was because seemingly out of nowhere she found herself trapped by a fox, his arms wrapped around her front, holding one of her paws at her waist as he pressed up behind her, nearly blanketing her as he nestled his muzzle between her ears.

And that was all before he starting to move, gently pulling her with him to a beat following the music.

 _~Whenever, wherever~_

 _~We're meant to be together~_

Judy tried to speak and failed. She was trapped. _Trapped_. Trapped in the arms of a fox. Trapped by _her_ fox.

 _~I'll be there and you'll be near~_

 _~And that's the deal my dear~_

She could feel him pressed against her back. feel his chest rumbling in that almost savage manner. His arms around her waist and his muzzle pressed against her ears. She could feel his thumb making lazy, circular movements while exploring her padless paw. She could feel him _everywhere_. Feel _him_ pressed up against her tail.

 _~Thereover, hereunder~_

 _~You'll never have to wonder~_

 _~We can always play by ear~_

 _~But that's the deal my dear~_

The feeling of Nick so close to her was overwhelming, suffocating...burning. It was too much too fast and she wasn't breathing and then Nick _nibbled_ on her ear. _That_ sure got her breathing! Almost hyperventilating actually, as tingles ran up and down her and she tried not to squeak in surprise or worse, moan in pleasure.

" _N-Nick!_ " Judy's voice was more than a little shaky as she tried to look up at Nick. Tried to figure out what game he was playing at. Tried to-

Her nose bumped his chin, and Nick looked down, his mouth just over hers and she thought he was going to kiss her. She _wanted_ him to kiss her. His lips moved toward hers but hesitated just before touching.

Judy stopped breathing, her heart thumping once, twice, then…

Then he _did_ kiss her.

Kissed her nose.

It was too much. Nick was too much. The way he was holding her was to much. And that stupidly Nickish smirk at her shocked dumb bunny expression and currently half melted mind sloshing around in her heart as he placed that chaste little peck on her nose was too _carrot_ _blasted_ much!

Judy exploded.

Sort of.

She wanted to shout at Nick, rail at him, ask him what the hell? Turn and jump up and plant her feet on his legs, grab that stupid tie of his, pull him down and _force_ him to kiss her. Kiss her _right_. Kiss her like she dreamed of every night.

Except he was holding her, his arms keeping her back pressed against him. Not that it would have stopped her, except... her body seemed to have melted into him; refused to move away from that warmth.

So her explosion was more of a fizzle.

"Nick! What- Why- My _Nose_?! What are you doing, you dumb Fox!?"

Nick, curse him, only smirked leaning his head against hers as she twisted trying to see his face which he deftly kept just out of sight of hers, all the while continuing to move to the music with her still held in his arms.

"I'm dancing. Being ' _impressive'_ and flirtatious just like you said I needed to be," he replied, his breath ruffling the fur on her neck and making her want to groan and lean into him, which she firmly decided she _wouldn't_ do. She was too mad at him at the moment. Too flustered, too worried she'd melt into an incoherent puddle nuzzling against him and make a fool of herself.

"Why?" Nick continued, his breath still tickling her neck, "Do you think this still isn't good enough to catch the attention of the girl I like?"

"I… uh… no… this is…" Gods the way his muzzle was pressed against her neck almost like he wanted to nibble and kiss it was making it hard to think, "this… would work… I…'" Judy's eyes, against her will, shut for a second as she leaned her head backwards into his chest while his muzzle brushed her neck, his breathing ruffling her fur. She didn't want him to stop, she wanted him to keep holding her like this, she wanted to be the girl he always wanted to hold like this… his girl.

Judy's eyes flew open, "I… Nick! What? If your girl see us- you- right now… What? What hustle are you playing at Nick?!" she spluttered in alarm and confusion.

Nick, though, let out a low almost amused snort as if that didn't matter.

"What hustle am _I_ playing at Carrots?" Nick asked wryly before pressing his nose into her neck and letting out another snort of air. "Why don't you answer first and tell me what hustle _you're_ playing at?"

" _Me_?" Judy squeaked.

"Yes. You," Nick snickered into her neck.

"I- I'm not- I-"

"Oh yes you were, Carrots," Nick snickered again, still moving back and forth to the music with her clutched in his arms. "Were doing a good job of it too, throwing me off balance like you were, but subtle you are not." This time his snort was almost a laugh. "That and you've tried hustling the wrong fox one too many times, Carrots. So what hustle are you running?

 _Well Carrot sticks!_ Judy cursed to herself amid her roiling confused feelings and thoughts. Nothing made sense at the moment to her. Her feelings where yo-yoing all over the place. From contented bliss at how Nick felt pressed against her, to irritation at the same fox, to worry she was screwing everything up. It certainly didn't help that she didn't understand what the heck Nick was doing except that he'd somehow turned her hustle on her.

"I- Nick, I just…" Judy's voice cracked and she felt like she might cry for a second. "Darnit Nick! Why were you looking at my tail?"

"Why'd you shake it at me?" He replied casually, almost trivially.

Judy flushed, feeling both irate at his blithe response and flustered at the same time.

"I- That's _not_ important!" she shouted in an almost squeak, then feeling irrationally vexed continued. "I wanted to get you to open up to me! I want to understand what's really going on with you Nick! I want to know why _you_ , confident _Nick Wilde_ , first _fox_ ZPD _officer!,_ seems to have given up on this girl he supposedly loves. I want to stop seeing my best friend hurt! I- I want…" Judy choked up, her irritation and anger fleeing, leaving her feeling like she wanted to cry again, leaving her feeling like she had a hole in her heart. "I want… want to know what I can do to make you happy…" Judy trailed off her throat tightening as she stood there still, her back pressed to Nick as he held her though he was no longer moving to the music. She closed her eyes and then mouthed silently.

' _ **I**_ want to make you happy.'

* * *

" _ **Damnit**_." Nadine muttered as she held Ralph a step away from her and lowered her head as if she was exhausted from a long, _long_ run.

"Sorry… I just started wolfing out again, didn't I?" Ralph mumbled embarrassedly as he stopped trying to move closer to her and eyed the space she'd put between them.

"Yes, Rajah save me, Yes, you did! Complete with _My what big teeth you have,_ look… stupid sexy wolfish look… you losing it shouldn't be such a turn on…" Nadine muttered, then blushed as if she hadn't meant to say that.

"Look? What look?" Ralph asked, head snapping up, suddenly very interested in figuring out what 'look' he'd been giving her. He thought back to a few moments ago and her 'Bad wolf' comment and the smell of her scent…

"Do you mean this look?" he said and let all his feelings for Nadine, all his wants and desire show in his eyes and _smiled_ as he gazed at her.

Nadine's eyes went _wide_ and she let out squeak before her paw snapped up and clamped over his muzzle, smothering his smile.

She took in a shaky breath, her fur settling a bit from its momentarily frizzed state. Then she narrowed her gaze and growled threateningly.

"Do that again Ralph and I'll _Bite_ you!"

It was a very menacing growl, Ralph thought as a shiver rolled through him; very menacing, and also very husky too.

"And stop wagging your tail so much!" Nadine commanded.

Ralph tried to restrain his smile as he reached back and grabbed his fanning tail to stop it. The appendage continued to try to wag despite all his orders not to, but his effort seemed to mollify Nadine and her grip on his muzzle loosened.

Ralph wondered for a second if she would actually follow through on that threat and bite him if he smiled again, but then she was a _tiger_ …

 _Don't! Don't say it!_ Some part of the rational side of Ralph's mind shouted at him. _Your tiger's going to break if you push her buttons too much! Just looked what happened the last time you booped her!_

"I thought you said biting meant something different to tigers?" Ralph couldn't resist from asking as soon as her grip on his muzzle loosened,

 _Stupid Wolf! You are_ _ **such**_ _a Stupid Wolf!_ His mind shouted at him even as he said it.

Nadine's settling fur frizzed up again around her neck.

 _Yep._ Replied the giddy love sick and clearly not rational side of himself, _But I'm her stupid wolf *Grin*_

"I -that's- well yes!" Nadine started stammering, then stopped and growled out, "-but that's _not_ -"

She didn't make it any further than that as her eyes met his and her growl died as she flushed. The gold flecks in her hazel orbs seemed to flare wildly as everything around them slowed to a crawl while their gazes locked.

She stared into his eyes, and he stared back.

Breathing abruptly felt hard and difficult as the air between them seemed to still and nearly crackle with an invisible current, like the calm on a dry day just before a winter storm.

All sorts of emotions roiling behind Nadine's eyes; desire, fear, longing, nervousness, a thousand other emotions whipping into a primal fire as she stared at him on verge of violent movement and he stared back, his mind fogging with all his own emotions and worries and primal wants. Ralph's thoughts slipped from reasoning to something more instinctive as they held each others gaze, neither moving while the tension between them built to unbearable levels.

 _If she jumps forward, I'll dodge, sucker her into making a mistake as she chases me. If she moves to the side, charge and chase; better watch for a faint, Nadine's tricky like that. Her whiskers will twitch just before she acts, it's her tell, be ready; don't break eye contact, do that and you lose. She already won this morning, lose twice in a row like that and she'll tease you to death with it. Can't have that now, She'd be impossible to live with; Can't lose. Need to show her I'm strong enough to be with her, need to show her I care, need to show her how much I love her…_

Something in Nadine's stare shifted, some bit of recognition, some bit of understanding that flashed through her eyes and caused the heated almost violent look to soften, deepen.

Her paw, seemingly by itself, came up and touched the spot where he'd marked her cheek.

A moment that seemed to drag on forever.

Nadine's jaw quivered as she bit her lip and then of all things, she broke eye contact and looked down, her eyes seemed to shimmer with what might have been the start of tears.

Ralph stood there, stunned for a second at the sudden end to the inadvertent challenge, then Nadine spoke, a nervous, almost tremulous note to her voice.

"It's more than just being playful or a bit flirty… Nips and bites mean more to felines, just like giving food means more for wolves…"

There was a pause as Nadine seemed to try and figure out how to go on.

'Wolves," Ralph interjected hesitantly, after the moment stretched and threatened to become awkward, "See giving and accepting food as a sign of giving and accepting the care and protection of another," he started to move forward, closer to Nadine, then stopped himself, terrified that it was the wrong thing to do. Nadine had sounded almost… scared; she seemed more vulnerable right now than he'd ever seen her or could have even imagined her being. Nadine simply _didn't_ do vulnerable.

Ralph swallowed hard; this was something he hadn't expected. A part of Nadine he hadn't known about before. Something she was opening up to him about.

Things between them were changing and he knew deep down in his bones that it was monumentally important he didn't screw this up.

"It's why when wolves start courting and go out to dinner, they split the bill." He said past the lump in his throat. "You know things between a courting pair are getting really serious when one lets the other pay for the meal."

"I know," Nadine said, not looking at him. There was still the gap between them and she was almost perfectly motionless except for her tail. It was making sharp erratic jerks behind her.

"And I took the food you gave me this morning."

 _Ohhhh crap… I'd almost forgotten about that…_ Ralph thought with sudden worry at how she might have viewed that.

"Nadine, I- Megan just asked me to hold that bowl for her this morning while she knocked on the door, I didn't think- I didn't mean to-"

"Then," Nadine cut in slowly, almost like she hadn't heard him, and Ralph snapped his mouth shut, "back at the food court I was irritated and told you you'd be paying for dinner…"

"Ya, but you gave me the money from Wilde's prank, so it's not exactly like I'd be paying," Ralph started rationalizing desperately, "well I would be, but it's almost like you're paying since it's your money, well money we got from that… kiss…" Ralph's reasoning seemed to cave in on itself and he shut his mouth before he made things worse.

 _Crap! Double Crap! I'm screwing this up! I'm_ _ **screwing-**_

Nadine glanced up at him almost timidly, then flushed just a bit and glanced back down, her tail snapping even more erratically than before.

"Ralph, did you know Booping to felines is foreplay?" she asked

"Um… no…" Ralph swallowed, "I, ah sort of started to guess it was something like that after what the other tiger said at the food court…"

This time, Nadine blushed more than just a bit when she glanced at him.

"Yes… well, it is. It's a sort of 'come and get me' signal. Nipping and biting is similar but it's more possessive. You wolves might nip each other while making out, no different than if it was a kiss, but for us, well…" Nadine seemed to be getting a bit more flustered and started talking faster, "biting, especially if you leave a hickey is closer to leaving a mark than it is to kissing; If you saw two tigers nip each other, you can be pretty sure their together, I mean more than just dating, just _starting_ to date that is. Past the fooling around stage. That is, that their… intimate… very intimate… sexually…" Nadine petered out cheeks burning and looking _anywhere_ but at him.

 _Ohhhhhhh Crap…_ Ralph thought, _Talk about interspecies dating faux pas… How many times have I nipped her today?_ Ralph blushed and looked down at his paws as if to try counting on his fingers, then figured that wouldn't be nearly enough; his tail would only give him one more so that wouldn't help either, and if he started waving it around Nadine was liable to bite it and maybe his rear again…

Ralph's spiraling thoughts hit a speed bump and he snapped his head around to look at his own tail and butt. He could still feel the bite she'd put on it this morning. He snapped his head back only for Nadine who'd been watching him, to quickly look down at her now fiddling paws, only to then glanced back up at him.

Ralph pointed at his backside, "Then this means…"

"That was an impulse!" Nadine blurted out, blushing fit to burst, "I wasn't thinking when I did that!"

Ralph's ears dropped, suddenly deflated, "Then you don't want to-"

"NO! That's not what I meant!" Nadine burst out angrily and grabbed her ears as if she wanted to yank them off in frustration. "Damnit Ralph! I absolutely want to have sex with you! I want to drag you home and screw your brains out! I-" Nadine stopped yelling as a few of the nearby mammals, even above the blasting music and roaring crowd turned to look at them.

Nadine, paws still on her ears, froze, looking utterly mortified under gaze of the spectators. A few of the hippos started whispering together and giggling and Ralph rounded on them.

"This is a _**private**_ conversation!" he snarled, and pointed back at the stage, "Turn around and butt out!"

They did so, but he snarled again adding, "And keep your Shrek ears pointed that way!"

Almost as one, about half the group of younger hippos who'd swiveled their ears back toward them, flipped them back around to face the stage.

Satisfied that they wouldn't try eavesdropping now, Ralph turned back to Nadine.

She looked away from him, still mortified and looking like she wanted to hide. He tried to catch her eye, but couldn't. Finally, he stepped closer to her and reached up pulling her paws away from her head where they still clutched at her ears. He didn't let go of them once he had them in his. Then, slowly, he shifted his grip, and his heart thrilled as her fingers intertwining with his and she squeezed ever so slightly.

"You know, I didn't want to presume or anything," Ralph started soft, just loud enough for the two of them to hear, "I didn't want you to think that's all I care about, But I'd sort of guessed, well hoped really you might feel something like that toward me."

Nadine still wasn't looking at him, still looked scared and rather miserable now, and generally very un-Nadine like.

"And when did you guess that?" she asked while examining her toes.

"Hummm… sometime this morning in your apartment." Ralph couldn't help the small grin that appeared or how his tail started wagging, "I have to admit, That seemed like something right out of my dreams, I was almost afraid that might have been a fluke, but you've seemed to enjoy me being close to you all day."

"Ralph, we spend _most_ days stuck together," Nadine interjected as if that invalidated his reason.

"Sure, but at work we're on the job, and off work it's always been just friends hanging out together. We got to spend today brushing up against each other and sneaking kisses, I really like the kisses, and when you purr too…" Ralph was grinning now, "and there was the boat ride too. I wasn't sure how far I should go but you were pretty insistent."

" _Stupid Gods damned_ _ **phone call**_." Nadine snapped in a dark mutter, "I swear my parents have the absolute _**worst**_ timing in the universe." That, Ralph thought, sounded a bit more like his normal Nadine as some of her lingering anger and frustration from that event re-emerging and dispelling a bit of her hesitant frightened mood.

Ralph's tail kicked up a few gears. He felt a bit better seeing his feisty Nadine return and a bit giddy too from the implications of her responses.

Nadine noticed and her face heated up but she didn't move away.

This time when she looked at him, she didn't glance away.

Ralph smiled, feeling about as boyishly excited as the first time he ever kissed a girl.

"So, you want to have sex with me." he stated more than asked, unavoidable happy goofiness filling his tone.

He watched the blush as it worked its way across the patterning of Nadine's fur while she bit her lip and stared back at him.

"Yes."

Ralph could feel his smile straining is muzzle and couldn't help how his chest puffed up with pride.

"Tonight." Nadine added, still biting her lip, "I don't think I can wait longer than that. Not with how you left me hanging on the boat."

Ralph's tail just about broke itself.

 _She wants Me!_ _ **ME**_ _!_ Part of him was shouting in jubilation and singing in his mind, _ME, Nadine wants MEEEE!_ As far as lyrics went it wasn't very good, but he thought it was the best song he'd ever heard (Clawhauser could keep his Gazelle music, Nadine wanted Him!)

Nadine looked like she was having some sort of internal conflict all the while sucking on a lemon, but Ralph was far too happy and excited to care about pretty much anything else so he kissed her, sucking lemon look and everything.

There was a second of surprise, then a second were Nadine seemed to hold herself back hesitatingly; a second where she was caving, melting into the kiss, her muzzle turning slightly to fit with his, and that second turned into another and another as he kissed her and she kissed him back.

Ralph found himself grinning too much to properly kiss Nadine even as she pressed and he finally broke off, only to find that at some point during the kiss his paws had ended up around Nadine's hips and hers were around his back.

"I'd really like that too, Nadine." Ralph said and hugged her to him, well maybe more of the reverse since she was a bit bigger, but he didn't care as he pressed his face into the fur just above her shirt collar smelling her scent. He could feel Nadine's arms holding him back and her chin on his head and growled happily. He just needed to be near her right at that second, just needed to…

Ralph stopped suddenly, and with an effort of will that cost him, pulled back before he tried to mark her.

"N-Nadine," Ralph gasped, taking a few breaths to trying to steady himself, "You um, k-know that… that tonight we can do all sorts of things but ah, we can't um… I mean I'm a wolf and, well with sex there's sex and then there's _sex_ and…" He looked up onto to find Nadine staring at him with a blank expression.

"Nadine, if we have _sex_ tonight I'll knot you." He blurted out, then cringed. That had come out wrong, far to blunt, he hadn't explained it right, he needed to… His mind hit a wall as Nadine shifted slightly, and her suddenly very aroused scent smacked him in the face.

 _Ohhh… um… I didn't expect that…_

He looked up only to find Nadine biting her lip again.

"Okay." was Nadine's only response as she not quite looked at him and fidgeted again, another blast of her scent hitting him.

" _Nadine…_ " Ralph whined, "It's _**not**_ that simple!"

Nadine eyes glanced downward in the direction of his pants, and then clamped her muzzle shut as a giggle escaped.

"I'm pretty sure it is…" Nadine mumbled, another giggle escaping.

" _Nadine!_ " Ralph flushed hard as her shoulders shook slightly and her eyes despite an apparent effort to stop them, started drifting downward.

"If we tie, then I'll end up marking you!" Ralph spluttered and Nadine's distracted giggling broke off like it had been shot.

"What?" She asked and shook her head as if clearing it, before staring back at him, a now completely serious expression on her face.

This time it was Ralph who look away and mumbled, "If I knot you while we're having sex I'll mark you… I won't be able to stop myself. He glanced up at her cheek and flushed with embarrassment and more than a little shame. Nadine's paw followed his motion, touching the spot briefly.

She swallowed hard. "You can't just… um…"

"Nadine, how many stereotypes have you heard about wolves and canines?" Ralph asked, and Nadine's ears flattened, "and how many snickered expressions have you heard whispered around about us and knotting?" Nadine's cheeks flushed.

"It's not like everyone actually believes all that stuff Ralph!" Nadine said defensively, "I know better than to believe stupid stereotypes about other species, I wouldn't-"

"They're right."

"Come again?" Nadine asked, and Ralph looked down from the confusion on her face.

"In that one particular case, the rumors and stereotypes are right." he shuffled his foot, "Why do you think wolves call marrying 'tying the knot'?

"But… but… Ralph, are you saying that wolves don't have sex _until_ their married?!" Nadine asked sounding increasingly alarmed, "That _**we**_ can't have sex until we marry!?"

"Ummm…" Ralph glanced up at the almost desperate look on Nadine's face, then got hit out of left field as part of what she said hit him, "Did you say ' _until_ we marry'?" he repeated stupidly. Nadine flushed, then threw her paws up.

"Until, Unless, it doesn't matter!" Nadine said, and then jabbed him in the chest, "I don't know about you wolves but we felines _definitely_ have sex before we marry! And I _seriously_ doubt that all you wolves stay like celibate monks before you choose your mates too!"

"No…" Ralph said slowly, "most young wolves fool around a bit," He glanced at up at his tiger, "But knotting is different, that's not just sex, that's _mating_. Canines _mate_ for _life_ , Nadine! I mean like _seriously_ mate for life. They say 'it's all fun and games until someone gets their knot stuck' because after that wolves find it almost impossible to have sex with anyone _but_ their mate! We can't really separate the feelings associated with it! Think like erectile dysfunction on steroids. When canines knot they almost always mark each other too, you _mark_ your mate, its instinct, it's _why_ we mate for life, its why the pack and my parents were able to get a court order subpoenaing us to get married!"

Nadine's flush faded, leaving her looking a little pale, like she just realized something.

"Because they think we've already had sex…" Nadine said touching her cheek again, "that we're already mated…"

Ralph blushed, looked down.

"Yes."

"But we haven't yet!"

"Right…" Ralph couldn't help but glance at her paw on her cheek too. Nadine's eyebrows had furrowed like they always did when she was thinking hard and fast.

"So if we have sex then…"

"Technically, only if we tie the knot." Ralph replied seeing where her thoughts were headed.

"Then we _**can**_ have sex." Nadine looked relieved.

"Umm…" Ralph looked at her and his voice came out a bit squeaky, " _technically_ … yes…"

Nadine's shoulders slumped.

"There's a problem, isn't there?"

He nodded.

"There's a problem…"

"What problem?" Nadine's eyebrows furrowed dangerously, as if ready to tear apart whatever problem dared get in her way.

Ralph didn't respond, but glanced at her cheek.

Nadine's shoulders slumped again.

" **That** problem…" she swallowed. "I don't suppose there's _**any**_ way we can postpone dealing with that until we've actually had a chance to start dating for real?"

Ralph glanced back down at his feet gloomily, not responding.

"dating for at least a little while?" Nadine sounded a little desperate, like she was clutching at straws.

"a few days?... _A_ day? What about until _after_ we have sex?"

Ralph shook his head miserably.

"Nadine… I… I'm sorry I did that without asking, I _really_ didn't mean too, it just… happened…" Ralph swallowed, "It's my fault because I've been holding onto my feelings without telling you for so long now. I'd have a hard enough time _not_ Knotting if we slept together, but its winter… and I already marked you once… if I did that without thinking…" Ralph shook his head again, "I just don't trust myself to be able to hold back if we start doing anything more than fooling around just a little."

Ralph looked up at Nadine as she started absentmindedly gnawing on one of her paws as she thought, a look of trepidation and confliction on her face. She started pacing back and forth in front of him.

Step, step, turn. Step, step, turn. And with every step her tail twitched agitated behind her, almost snapping like a whip as she turned.

"I'm sorry Nadine. I don't want to pressure you like this." Ralph said feeling awful at the mess he'd made of things, then steeled himself. "You…" His throat seemed to clench up before he managed to get the rest out, "you could always just say no…"

Nadine _Froze._ Not even her tail moved though it was in mid snap.

* * *

"you could always just say no…"

No.

That was an option, one of the two answer she could give.

The thought ran through her Nadine's mind like a sloth in a race car. The rest of her mind felt more like a sloth on foot, and there was a sensation like someone had reached into her chest and was squeezing her heart.

She didn't even notice Ralph clear his throat nervously before he started speaking.

"Nadine, it's a bit unreasonable to expect an answer from a proposal I didn't even realize I'd made. If… If you did… did say no…"

No.

She could say no…

 _No_.

No

"We could, um… start again? Properly this time? If… if you'd wanted too… I mean it would just be because things had moved to fast, because I goofed up, we could go out to a movie and dinner, it wouldn't have to be like… like…"

 _Like I'd be rejecting him, crushing his heart, telling him he wasn't good enough for me? Because that is_ _ **exactly**_ _want it would mean._

The painful gripping sensation in her chest was getting worse.

It didn't matter what reasoning they put on it. Marking didn't have anything to do with reason. Rings and weddings and Marriage licenses had to do with reason and thought. Marking a mate didn't. Marking was based in instinct and desire and only gave a passing nod to reason.

 _Ralph marked me. He marked me. He thinks of me as his mate. If I say no…_

NO

 _It would hurt him. It doesn't matter why, it would still hurt him…_

The pain in her chest had become a searing burning sensation and Nadine realized she hadn't been breathing.

GASP. Nadine took in a lung full of air, then another and the burning sensation faded leaving only a throbbing ache in her heart.

Ralph was looking at her a bit worriedly as she tried to get her breathing back to normal.

 _Okay. A plan. I need a plan. Hide the mark didn't work. So come up with a new plan._

"Ralph, um… what if… what if you, ah pretended you hadn't found out about your mark."

 _Oh that was really smart_ , some part of her mind noted sarcastically, _Why don't you just click your heels three times and wish for your fairy godmother to appear?_

 _Because I'd be more likely to get Ralph's Mother than a fairy godmother!_

 _Humm… yes I could see your mother-in-law appearing like that. Have you pissed of any fox deities lately because Karma really seems out to get you._

 _No, I have not!- wait,_ _ **what do you mean mother-in-law?!**_

 _Umm… right, your partner, *ehem*_ _ **police**_ _partner/ best friend/ sort of boyfriend/ quasi lover/ future mate depending on your overdue answer's mother. Is that better?_

 _Shut up! And No! And if it's overdue, what does it matter if I make it a little_ _ **more**_ _overdue?_

 _There's a price for it being overdue…_

 _Fine! I'll pay that price!_

Ralph was looking at her with a bit of an odd expression. He opened his mouth, then shut it as if rethinking how to respond.

"Ralph, it's just an _itsy_ - _bitsy_ mark," Nadine said holding up her paw, thumb and forefinger just barely apart, a pleading note to her voice like she was asking him to tell her Santa Claws really wasn't made up, "I mean you didn't even know you'd done it till a little while ago. Could we just go back to how things were progressing right before that? Just ignore it for a while? Things between us were going great and nobody knew about the mark."

"My parents know about it now." Ralph said with more than a little trepidation and Nadine winced.

 _Price check on overdue answer! Lets see… that would be one soon to be mother-in-law with a straight jacked disguised as a wedding dress._ That little sarcastic part of her mind quipped and she shuddered.

 _Oh and don't forget about the interest on that, because there's no doubt that his parents are going to tell your parents and as free spirited as they might be, they certainly won't put up with you trying to delay an answer._

 _Well Shit… but…_

 _But? How is there a but in there? Your bill's come due!_

 _But… they aren't here right now and can't collect. So long as we can keep a bit of distance… Lets see about paying with a different form. Do you take credit?_

"Ralph, let's just forget about everyone but us for a second!" Nadine said desperation seeping into her voice, and she gestured franticly between them, "This… this…"

Relationship? Was it a relationship? Wasn't there some minimum amount of time dating needed before you could say you were in a relationship?

"This _whatever_ this is that we've started between us. This is between you and me, not them. Can't, can't we hold off on making any permanent life altering decisions before we have a chance to figure out exactly what this is we have?"

This relationship, or connection or bond or love…

Nadine's heart gave a jerk.

or whatever it was…

"I… I guess… we could, ah, try that." Ralph looked uncomfortable, as if he were straining against himself… which Nadine guess he probably was.

A lot.

Everything in tradition and custom and instinct went against what she was proposing. It simply wasn't done. A mark was either returned or it wasn't. It was a yes or a no. It wasn't like a ring where she could say she wanted some more time to consider. It's why any smart modern mammal proposed with a ring before giving a mark. She was already wearing _his_ mark and trying to hide it and ask him to wait for an answer.

"I can- I can wait Nadine… If you need time… I'll, I'll do my best to give it to you." Ralph said slowly then gave a nervous glance at her shoulder worriedly.

She had a moment of relief that he was on board with her clearly nuts plan, then frowned and followed Ralph's increasingly worried look to her shoulder.

There wasn't anything wrong with it as far as she could see. Her shirt was a little rumpled from everything they'd been through today, but it wasn't _that_ badly rumpled and it didn't smell bad or anything, in fact it smelled rather nice, a lot like Ralph… no, more like Ralph's mark… she sniffed her shoulder… exactly like Ralph's mark in fact…

 _When the hell did he mark my shirt?! I should have noticed something like that!_

Nadine looked back at Ralph with what, she was sure, must have been the world's stupidest look on her face. He on the other hand had a rather embarrassed expression and the gray fur over his cheeks darkened before he looked down. Only to then glanced at her shoulder a second later and give her a pleadingly apologetic look. A look that somewhere behind the puppy eyes 'sorry', was something more base and primal in his gold eyes, something that looked at her with a near savage desperation.

 _Credit might work with your parents… until they find you, but it's not going to work with him._ Warned that little voice in her mind.

 _Shut up._

 _Sooner or later, and sooner would be my guess, He's gonna lose it and chase you down and start marking you until you respond or chase him away…_

 _Shut! Up!_

 _Hey! Stop fantasizing about Ralph chasing you, this isn't the time for that! And anyway, unlike your little daydream Mrs. Fantasies gone wild, even half savage he'd wouldn't do anything more than mark you until you responded… probably wouldn't… hum, well, you didn't when you lost it, you just marked the bejeezus out of his shirt, but then again that episode got interrupted so who knows how far you might have gone._

 _Shut up! Shut Up! SHUT UP! I did not! I am not!_ _ **SHUT**_ _**UP**_ _!_

 _You clearly did mark his shirt, denying the facts is idiotic, and you're clearly getting very aroused by something, and oh my! Your wolf's getting that glassy eyed 'savage wolf smells something he wants' look you like so much._

 _ **SHUT-**_ _oh crap!_

"Ralph!" Nadine grabbed both his shoulders and shook him quickly.

A low deep growl that made the heat she was trying to ignore kick up a few notches, emanated from Ralph at her touch and she shook him a bit harder.

He blinked, and his eyes cleared as he seemed to come back to himself.

"I um- I didn't just…" Ralph asked sounding a bit confused, then rather worried. Then, after glancing at her panicked expression as she held his shoulders, looked downright frightened.

"Nadine, it ah, might be better if you just-" his voice cracked painfully, "just told me no…"

No.

She could say no…

A simple no. Just…

No.

The painful burning sensation was coming back to her chest before she remembered to breathe again.

Ralph was looking at her with concern again, still embarrassed and determined and downcast but most of all concerned, and Nadine was pretty sure that's what did it.

"Nadine, I-"

Something deep inside her chest cracked painfully.

"I _**can't**_!" Nadine choked back a sob, "I- I just _Can't… I can't tell you that!_ "

"Nadine, you, _anyone_ , can always say no." Ralph's ears had flattened, and he was looking at her with a partially confused but overwhelmingly distraught expression, like he didn't know what to do as she started to shake her head wildly and tremble.

" **No,** I _can't_! Anyone else Ralph, _Anyone_ else and I could but I can't tell you no like that!" She felt something wet track down her cheek and closed her eyes while her whole body shook, "I can't. I can't do that to you, I _can't_ do that to the mammal I love! I _**can't**_!" She couldn't say anything more because her throat had constricted, feeling hot and soar as more tears leaked past her tightly shut eyes. She squeezed her eyelids closed even harder, and tried to hold in the sobs that racked her chest. She didn't want Ralph to see her like this. She was supposed to be strong, fearless, brave; a _real_ tigress, fierce and independent, not a crying mess because she couldn't handle how she felt for her partner. How much she'd grown to depend on him, need him without even knowing she had.

"You… you said…" Ralph's voice was low and a bit hoarse, like he wasn't sure he'd heard right, "You said you… you love me."

Her heart gave another jerk, and Nadine wasn't able to hold back the sob this time.

Something touched her cheek, soft and careful as it brushed past her whiskers, and she felt the pad of Ralph's paw rest against her muzzle as he wiped away a tear.

"Nadine…" he tilted her muzzle up slightly and the tone in his voice made her open her eyes even as she choked back another set of sobs. He was looking right at her, his eyes locking hers as he spoke. His voice soft, yet more serious than she'd ever heard him, like it was the most important thing in the world that she understood.

"I. _love_. you."

Whatever had cracked before deep in her chest broke. She wasn't sure if Ralph moved to hold her or if she had grabbed him, but she found herself burying her face in his shoulder as she began to cry in earnest.

* * *

"I wanted to get you to open up to me! I want to understand what's really going on with you Nick! I want to know why _you_ , confident _Nick Wilde_ , first _fox_ ZPD _officer!_ Seems to have given up on this girl he supposedly loves. I want to stop seeing my best friend hurt! I- I want… want to know what I can do to make you happy…"

Nick stopped swaying to the beat of the music as Judy let it all out.

A second before he'd almost been enjoying himself, had been enjoying flipping Judy's little game back on her like it had been a chess match between hustlers where he'd deftly outmaneuvered her. _Certainly_ had enjoyed the excuse he'd given himself to get so close to her, hold her, smell her, feel her against him… probably enjoyed that too much…

In fact, he _might_ have gone a bit too far… but her comments had stung, had hit him too close to the mark and had roused that desperate primal part of him he was trying to keep in check.

That last, deliberate, dismissive shake of her tail at him had snapped something in him, broken some part of his restraint. He'd known she'd been working some angle with her looks and comments, but it hadn't mattered. It was like at that first press conference all over again, Judy might not have meant to hurt him, in fact this time she was probably trying her best to _help_ him, but having others, anyone, even himself prying into the thoughts and emotions he kept locked away, _hurt_.

And like the dumb fox he was he'd reacted on instinct.

She wanted to pry into _his_ feelings?! Well then he'd _show_ her a bit of his feelings! He'd _push_ , let out a bit of that desperate longing and pain and frustration he hid under their friendship. He'd show her just enough of his unbridled feelings that it might scare her. He was a fox after all, a _predator_. There was a quite literal savageness to the depth of emotion and unfettered need he felt for her, something that would scare any prey mammal. _That_ would certainly give even Judy pause, something that quite frankly even scared him.

It was only after he'd already turned the tables on her, flustered her enough that he could move in on her like he really was stalking some prey, that he thought what he was doing might be stupid. That he _might_ be acting just as idiotically as he had been back at that first press conference when he'd lashed out at her.

By then though, he wasn't thinking clearly.

He had _his_ bunny in his arms, had her pressed up to him against him without even a hint of struggle as her scent took on that flavor it did whenever he managed to fluster her a bit… except that this time the scent seemed stronger… even _more_ enticing than usually.

And he was closer, _oh so_ much closer to her than he should be… holding her to him, pressing his nose into her neck, smelling that entrancing scent all while the other barely functioning portions of his mind kept up his hustle…

Part of him was sure Karma was going to curse him to the deepest pits of hell for the way he was reveling in the guilty pleasure of so inappropriately flirting with her like this, but he didn't have the spare thoughts to care.

He'd flipped Judy's hustle on her, would figure out what game she'd been playing at and most importantly, sate some of that _need_ to be close to her, even if it was just for these few secret moments. He had _his_ bunny, was able to hold her, nuzzle her, _kiss_ her… (even if it was just her nose).

And then he'd finally gotten her to spill.

' _I want to stop seeing my best friend hurt! I- I want… want to know what I can do to make you happy…'_

Her response froze him, his arms going slack around her as all amusement fled.

She wanted to make him happy…

The constant ache in his heart he tried to keep buried throbbed painfully.

Of course she just wanted to see him happy.

 _Throb_

Wanted to help him. Would pull some stupid hustle to try and figure out how she might make him feel better when he tried hiding his pain away.

 _Throb_

This was Judy. The dumb country bumpkin bunny with a heart of gold. The bunny that was too kind for her own good. The bunny who despite it being blatantly impossible went and became a police officer so she could help others. The bunny that had gone and befriended some shady fox hustler that had given up on the world and convinced him to try again. The dumb bunny who had hopped into his life and made it better, despite his best efforts to resist and then went and stole his heart without even realizing it.

 _Throb_

 _Of course_ she was just trying to help, to make him happy. It's what she did. It's what Judy _always_ did.

 _ **Throb**_

Just being around her made him happy. Didn't she understand that? Working with her at the ZPD, hanging out with her in their free time, teasing back and forth with her, seeing her smile or pout with that adorable cuteness or get her just a bit flustered; hearing her laugh or make fun of his bad jokes. Helping _her_ do the impossible and make Zootopia better, one day at a time. _That's_ what made him happy. Being with her made him happy. Being her friend made him happy. Trying to make _her_ happy made him happy.

 _ **Throb**_

There was nothing more in the world he wanted than to be with her, to do for her what she'd done for him. To make her happy in every possible way. To share how much he loved her and make her as happy as she made him.

 _ **Throb**_

The ache was _**unbearable**_. Every time he thought he'd gotten a handle on it Judy would do something to make it worse. Every time he thought he couldn't possibly fall more in love with her, that dumb bunny proved him wrong.

 _ **THROB**_

* * *

' _ **I**_ want to make you happy.'

The self-admission made Judy choke up. It took all her effort to hold back her whipsawing emotions so she didn't attentively fly off the handle at Nick for him being so… so… just so _Nickish_ , or just _melt_ into him or _Serendipity help her_ , start bawling like… like… like Nadine was to Ralph actually.

Judy sniffled to herself as she watched her two friends from the ZPD and worked to regain some semblance of control, though seeing the tiger and the wolf hold each other, if anything actually made it harder for her.

It was just…she couldn't help being a bit jealous. Jealous of the female that had caught Nick's heart. Jealous of the way Ralph was holding Nadine so tenderly. Jealous of how Nadine, one of the strongest most stalwart mammals she knew, could open up so freely to Ralph. Jealous of how they could comfort each other most of all, jealous of how much she wanted to be like that with Nick, to have the way he'd been holding _her_ just a few moments ago be because of something more than just part of a hustle.

Jealous because _she_ wanted to be able to be the one who made Nick happy in life.

She sniffled again and whipped her eyes as Gazelle's song came to an end, hoping to forestall the water works she'd inherited from her father before they started up.

 _~Whenever, wherever~_

 _~We're meant to be together~_

 _~I'll be there and you'll be near~_

 _~And that's the deal my dear~_

 _~There over, hereunder~_

 _~You've got me head over heels~_

 _~There's nothing left to fear~_

 _~If you really feel the way I feel…~_

The irony of the lyrics almost made Judy laugh. It almost made her cry too.

 _Gahh! Stop being such a dumb emotional bunny!_ She scolded herself and with a force of will grabbed her unruly emotions and tamped them all back down.

It was that dumb fox's fault anyway that her emotions were all over the place. She'd gotten so used to sharing everything with him that not being able to open up about how she really felt toward him was driving her around the bend and into the creek.

 _Stupid 'Foxy Lady'!_ she growled to herself, wiping harder.

Nor did it help that even while Nick had opened up to her about most things, he'd only gotten more reserved and moody about his own feelings since the start of winter!

 _And_ he still hadn't answered any of her questions! That dumb, stupid, sneaky, fox! Why did she have to fall for such an aggravating mammal anyway?!

 _Nick standing up to the Chief in her defense when he'd wanted her badge_

 _Nick on the sky tram showing her a bit of himself he kept hidden from the rest of the world._

 _Nick forgiving her after she'd been the world's dumbest bunny._

 _Nick making her laugh instead of cry even as she stood on his tail._

 _Nick refusing to leave her in the museum when her leg was injured, though it was the stupid thing to do._

 _Nick in his dress blues looking too handsome and smiling, really truly smiling at her as she pinned his badge on his uniform for the first time._

 _Nick always by her side, always there whenever she needed him, whether on the job, or with a horrible joke to cheer her up, or just there as the friend she could always rely on._

"Stupid, dumb, lovable, fox," Judy muttered to herself, giving her eyes one last rub just to be safe.

Everything from her emotions to her friendship with Nick seemed to be muddled at the moment, and one way or another she was going to fix it. She _would_ get some answers to Nick's moodiness and make him smile one way or another and then she might be able to sort out her frazzled, conflicted, lovesick feelings for him.

"Nick, you didn't answer _my_ questions…" Judy started to ask, then stopped, as the oddness of just how still Nick was being struck her. His arms still wrapped around her, but they were loose. In fact, he was entirely still except for his breathing, which sounded… _off,_ too shallow and quick, almost pained.

She twisted her head around so that she could look up at him. Then blinked at what she saw.

He looked almost… broken.

"Nick?" she asked a bit worriedly.

He looked down at her, his eyes seeming to shimmer in the dim light almost as if _he_ was about to cry.

Before she could react he shook his head, then with an almost audible _thump_ , pulled her into a tight embrace.

" _Nick_?!" Judy squeaked, startled and now very confused.

But instead of answering he just pressed his face down between her ears, placing his forehead against the back of hers as if he were trying to hide.

His hold on her was different too, nothing like it had been before with that ridiculous flirty charm he'd pulled out of thin air. No, this was more like he was holding onto her for dear life. It was a desperate _needy_ embrace, no flirtatious overtones, just… raw need. A frantic, desperate need, like holding her was the only thing stopping the world from ending.

His chest pressed against her back as he took in large, ragged breaths, and his arms tightening around her waist as if he were afraid she'd run away.

"Nick? What's the matter?" Judy asked again, seriously worried by his desperate hold even as it sent warm, tingly, content feelings spreading throughout every fiber of her being.

"You…" Nick muttered hoarsely into the back of her neck, his hold on her becoming, if anything _more_ desperate, "You… are such a _dumb_ bunny."

" _What?!_ " Judy spluttered, peaked at his comment, even as those warm tingles caused a flush to start heating her cheeks

"You… you just want to see me… happy." Nick let out a laugh though it sounded more miserable than amused.

"I… well, yes," Judy fumbled, confused, then repeated more firmly, "Yes, _yes_ I _do_." She felt conversationally lost, but on that point she was certain.

"Why?" Nick croaked, his head pressing harder against the back of hers. Judy tried to wiggle around to get a look at him, hoping that might clue her in to what the heck was going on with her fox.

Winter moods or not, this was _odd,_ even for moody Nick, and it was worrying her. Worrying her most of all because she didn't know how to help him.

Nick though, just moved his head with hers, keeping his temple pressed between her ears so his face was out of sight.

"Why? Why _what_?" Judy asked flummoxed by his question and trying not to pout in frustration as she failed to get a look at her darned slippery fox. He was right there; he was bigger than her and _right there_ , not even _an inch_ away from her. How could she _not_ be able to get a look at him?!

" _Why?_ " Nick repeated even more hoarsely. "Why are you so intent on trying to make _me_ happy?"

Well that was a stupid question if she'd ever heard one.

Judy let out an irritated huff, more out of frustrated worry than anything else.

"And you call _me_ a dumb bunny?!" Judy said gruffly, then sniffed. "For being such a smart, cunning mammal, you can be a real _dumb_ fox sometimes, Nick! I want to see you happy because you're my friend!" She tried to elbow him to drive home her point but he was _too_ close, she wiggled for a second, managing to reached around awkwardly and poked him in his side instead, "My _best_ friend, you _**dumb**_ fox. Why _wouldn't_ I want to see a mammal I _love_ be happy?"

Nick twitched at her poke, but his arms only tightened around her before his chest shuddered and he made the oddest low noise in his throat; a sound somewhere between a broken whine and mewling sob.

Even with her ears that soft sound seemed like it should have been drowned out by the noise around them.

But it wasn't.

It _cut_ right through the tumult of the crowd and jabbed Judy right in that part of her heart that hurt whenever she thought about Nick being with someone else. It resonated there, echoing, _hurting_.

"Nick?" Judy's breath caught in her throat as her heart ache flared, mixing with her worry and confusion and she just wanted to turn and hug Nick. Make him understand that everything would be okay even if she had no idea what was wrong. She wanted to hold him, comfort _him_...comfort _herself_. Wanted to press her face into his ruff and smell his musk and let it make that aching _pain_ go away.

She tried actually. Tried to do just that, but Nick's hold on her was too strong and when she started struggling, trying to twist around to hug him he made _that_ sound again, that low, desperate, hoarse whine of a noise that cut right through her and made her heart feel like it was going to shatter into a thousand pieces.

She stopped immediately, then for lack of anything better to do, and because she needed, _needed_ , _**needed**_ , to do something, _**anything**_ , to try and comfort her fox, she grabbed his paws with hers, laying her arms over his where they wrapped around her stomach and squeezed reassuringly, trying by her very actions to tell him she was there for him.

It didn't work.

Actually, it seemed to make things worse. That low almost inaudible whine doubled in intensity, ripping at her heart even as his paws shifted to hold hers back.

The contradiction in painful and comforting feelings and her confusion as to what she was doing wrong and why Nick seemed so hurt mixed into a near _frantic_ worry in Judy as she clutched his paws, not sure what else she could do.

"Nick, _what's_ wrong?!" she asked, her voice nearly breaking, tears welling up in her eyes as she tried looking up at him. "How can I _help_?!"

He just shook his head, scooting it down further so she couldn't see him as she tried looked up.

Her frantic worry was turning toward panicked desperation, so she blurted out the first thing she thought of.

"Is… Is it," Judy's voice cracked, "me? Am I doing something wrong Nick?"

He shook his head violently against the back of hers, his paws gripping hers so hard his knuckles seemed to pale under his dark russet fur. Judy took a breath, relieved in part, but still on the edge of panic since she still had no clue as to what was affecting Nick like this…

But then again it _was_ winter. Everyone had told her that winter mating season could be rough on predators, and she'd just been trying to get him to open up about…

Judy's throat tightened, and she tried again.

"Nick… does this… does this have anything to do with… with the girl you like?"

Nick let out a pained croaking laugh, as if her question had been the funniest saddest thing he'd ever heard.

"Can I hide _anything_ from you Judy?" Nick asked after his laugh, his voice somewhere between heartbroken and sarcastic. Judy's heart seemed to freeze then slowly break, all the sharp little pieces grinding together as it started to crumble.

 _NO! Hold it together!_ Judy chastised herself. _Nick needs you! You might just be his friend, but he still needs you right now. Bunny up and deal with your heartbreak later!_

Judy shut her eyes for a second letting go with one paw to wipe at some moisture that had collected there, then grabbed Nick's paw back with hers and squeezed.

"No. No you can't, Nick,"she said firmly, holding all her other feelings at bay for the moment and hoping he got the message she was trying to send by gripping his paw.

She'd failed him once before when he needed her support back at the press briefing when they'd first met and she'd sworn she'd never fail him again. If Nick needed her to be strong, then she would be just that. She would be someone he could always confide in, _always_ trust. She squeezed his paw hard.

She could go bawl to herself later about her breaking heart, for the moment Nick needed someone and she wasn't going to let him down. Wasn't going to let him hide because he had no one who cared.

Nick laughed again, this time some bit of actual amusement showing through the melancholy of the sound.

"You _sure_ about that, Fluff?" He asked almost teasingly though his voice was still hoarse, "I'm pretty damned good at hiding things. Been doing that and hustling mammals since I was a kid; hustled _you_ a few times too."

Judy huffed, her resolve firming.

"You might be able to hustle me, for a while at least, _Nick_ , but I _always_ figure out your hustle in the end. Now what's _wrong?_ " Despite her resolve, her voice turned almost pleading.

She squeezed his paw again, feeling the way Nick's chest moved in a ragged trembling motion against her back as he breathed.

Again, he shook his head against hers and she was about to press again when he spoke.

"Judy… you… I…" Nick's voice cracked, and he took in an uneven breath, his arms around her squeezing her to him briefly. "Sorry, It's just… dancing… holding yo- holding… someone…"

His voice broke again.

He took in another breath as if to try steadying himself, the air ruffling the fur at her neck as he breathed. Then with a low whine and resigned heave of his chest, he continued. "Judy… have I told you about this girl I've fallen in love with?"

* * *

Nadine didn't know how long she stood there crying as Ralph held her, but eventually her crying slowed to the occasional sniffle and her body stopped shaking and trembling.

"You okay now?" Ralph asked a little while later.

She whipped her eyes and nodded, pulling back from the close embrace.

Then she looked at him and saw the way he was looking at her, a look she couldn't describe except that it made her feel warm and loved and her heart started to hurt again even though he was right there. She shook her head quickly before crouching down almost like she wanted to clutch her knees to herself while her tail wrapped around her legs. Instead, she clutched his shirt and pulled him closer so she could bury her face in his stomach before she started crying again.

Her shoulders started shaking despite her best efforts to prevent them from doing so, but then Ralph's arms wrapped around them, like a comforting blanket, and they stopped.

 _That's not fair!_ Nadine thought, her grip on his shirt tightening, _How can he do that when even I can't?_

She felt Ralph lean forward and kiss the top of her head, right between her two round ears. Nadine's body untensed slightly, her ears pinned back lifted slightly and even without saying anything his simple kiss made her feel like everything might, just _might_ , turn out alright.

 _NOT… FAIR…_ Nadine growled to herself.

 _That's not fair! Not at all!_

"How do you do that?" Nadine finally asked.

"Um… do what?" Ralph sounded confused. Happy, _very_ happy, but still confused.

" _That!_ " she said waving a paw without even looking, her head still pressed against him.

"Um… could I get another hint?"

" _ **That!**_ " Nadine gesticulated more wildly, "That thing you do were you just make me feel better or calm down when _I, Can't!_ "

"Ohh…" Ralph sounded surprised but like he finally understood what she was asking about, "Ya… I got to figure out how I do that too."

Nadine groaned and thumped her head against him.

He kissed the top of her head again, and her ears twitched. Then he kissed one ear, right where the white spot on the back was and the ear unfolded from its laid back alarmed position and popped forward. Ralph snickered lightly then did the same to her other ear.

Nadine, ears back to their normal positions, growled into his belly but even then, her ears refused to pin back down.

"Maybe it's just because I love you." Ralph said so happily that it bordered on smug.

Nadine's heart gave a lurching throb.

She risked looking up at Ralph to give him a bit of a glare.

"I thought I said you can't use the L word!" she bit out, trying to hold the glare even as her lip quivered.

 _I will not start crying like some ninny! …again. I will Not!_ She told herself adamantly, then told herself it again with even more force as Ralph smiled at her.

"No." Ralph moved his paw to boop her nose, then stopped at the last second as he seemed to realized what he was about to do. Nadine went cross-eyed as she stared in alarm at his finger just above her nose (even as her heart started beating faster in anything but an alarmed way) Ralph hesitated a second then tapped her forehead lightly.

"No. you said I couldn't say it till you said it first. Remember?"

Nadine just gaped at him, eyes still crossed as they watched his paw.

"and you, Nadine," _Tap_ , "said it."

She was so preoccupied watching his paw, she didn't see him lean down to kiss the side of her muzzle, right next to her nose.

Her whiskers twitched…

She stared at him…

He stared back, nearly bubbling with happiness.

Her heart throbbed.

Then her whiskers twitched violently.

 _Oh crap, I_ _ **did**_ _say that! Ssssshhhhhhiiiiiiiiittttttt… I didn't mean to say that yet! Frikken, Flippety, Frakity, Fuck! Rajah save me!_

 _Meh... I don't think he can help you,_ some part of her mind answered, _You've gone and spilled the milk and there's no cleaning that one up._

 _But!_

 _No buts. You said it, you meant it! He heard it, he'll_ _ **know**_ _! And that, after everything else that's happened? Not even Bogo is going to be able to pry him away from you now. You just shot any chance at delaying this. You be_ _ **screwwwwweeeeddd!**_

"I love you Nadine," Ralph kissed her muzzle lightly, and 'Throb' seemed like an insufficient explanation for what her heart did, "I know things are all messed up between us, but I love you and you love me and that's all I care about." He kissed her again, and she wasn't sure if he kissed the spot he'd marked on purpose or not. She _was_ pretty sure she was about to cry if she didn't do something to prevent it.

Her paw was back up touching his mark, not that the fur felt any different there, but it was _his_ mark.

"And what about this?" she asked, and bit of Ralph's bubbling happiness subsided.

He swallowed and looked at her seeming unsure. Then their eyes met and in the moment before he looked down she say his gold eyes shimmer as if he were about to go full winter savage.

He didn't look at her, didn't respond, didn't move. In fact, the only thing he did was breathe, and do so in a very controlled and steady manner like it was at that moment, the entirety of his focus.

 _Ask a stupid question…_ some part of her mind warned.

Nadine swallowed hard.

"Ralph, this… this isn't just us going home together…" he was still looking down but his ears had cocked forward listening as he focused on his controlled breathing.

"This isn't just about us having _sex_. _**This**_ " She gestured at her cheek, her voice not very steady, "is a _**whole**_ lot more than just _sex_!"

Ralph nodded, then seemed to risk looking up at her, as _she_ breathed hard.

 _Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods… we're actually having this conversation… oh gods,_ Some part of her mind screamed hysterical as it ran in circles.

" _This_ " She gestured wildly again, the motions reflecting a bit of her thoughts, "is us being together _permanently_! This is about us making a den together! _This_ is us mating _for_ _life_! _**Life!**_ About us being a couple, not just a dating couple, a couple _couple_ , a starting a _family_ type of couple! This is rings, and vows, and weddings, and marriage licenses, and joint taxes, and shared bank accounts! Its you and me being stuck together for _everything,_ for the good, the bad, and the ugly for _as long as we live_! Ralph, there's no going back from this!"

"I know." Ralph nodded once, his voice was flat, serious, devoid of his usually happy playfulness.

"Ralph, we've known each other for a few years, we're close, _really_ close, but this is a whole other _magnitude_ of close. We _just_ started really exploring how we feel about each other! We're not ready for this!"

He nodded again.

"Then how are you so calm about it?!" Nadine nearly shouted.

Ralph reached out and took her paw, and some of the hysteria that she was starting to feel faded. She looked at their paws and was surprised to see that she'd laced her fingers with his.

"Your right." Ralph said slowly, "We aren't ready." He squeezed her paw lightly. "But…"

He looked up at her and she bit her lip as her heart did inexplicable things in her chest and her jaw started to quaver again.

 _I Will_ _ **not**_ _start crying again! I won't!_ Nadine tried telling herself as she clamped down hard on the tremble.

"But…" he continued, "if I had to take that chance with anyone, I'd take it with you." Ralph was looking at her so seriously, yet almost timidly, "I love you. I can't stop how I feel for you Nadine. I've known you too long, felt this way for too long. I can't promise everything will work out perfectly, that there might not be problems. All I can promise is that I'll love you, that I will _always_ love you, no matter what happens."

 _Will not cry, Will not cry, Will not cry…_

"And what about cubs Ralph!" Nadine said, feeling about ready to collapse emotionally again. "I can't see you _not_ wanting to have children! Forget that I'm not ready to be a mother, I don't think we even _can_ have children together! I'd be a mate who couldn't give you cubs! How could you want that?!"

Nadine felt herself starting to tear up again as this time her heart throbbed in a very unpleasant way. She was pretty sure the prospect of being cubless would make him stop and reconsider. Some part of her desperately _didn't_ want him to stop and think about it… but she knew herself too well and she simply couldn't go forward with something like this without knowing what he thought.

And Ralph did pause, but not in the sudden surprised, downcast or even contemplative way she thought he might. No, he paused and then, squeezing her paw, gave her a shy smile, just a hint of his happy goofiness showing through.

"First," he said raising a finger, "its pups, not cubs or kits."

Nadine blinked.

" _What_?"

"Wolves have pups. We don't call our children cubs." Ralph repeated as if it should be obvious.

"Ralph…" Nadine said staring at him not sure if he was actually joking at a moment like this, "If you haven't noticed… _I'm NOT a wolf!_ " She grabbed her tail pointing at the stripes for emphasis, " _ **Tigers**_ **,** call their children _cubs_!"

"Sure," Ralph shrugged, "but you'd be mating a wolf."

"And you'd be mating a tiger!" She all but growled back.

Ralph crossed his arms, though that stupid goofy grin was playing around the edges of his muzzle and made her want to pounce on him and roar.

"I can see this is going to be a problem point for us. Next thing you know, during soccer season you'll want to raise our children to root for your team and dress them up in Prowlers jerseys instead of Pack apparel."

"And _what's_ wrong with having them root for the winning team?!" Nadine snapped back before shaking her head and squinting at him, "And that's _not_ the point! Ralph, there's no hypothetical cubs of ours, we-"

"Pups." Ralph insisted, his shoulders setting in determination, and giving her a look that dared her, almost teasingly so, to try arguing.

Nadine _almost_ did. Then growled low, showing him her teeth.

He smirked.

"Yes, very pretty. Their still pups."

"Cubs, pups, kits, children, rugrats, whatever you want to call them, we couldn't have them!" She snarled.

"Rodents don't like that last term," Ralph said then shrugged, dismissing the point before she could bite him, "But Second, there's always the option of adopting."

Nadine paused, snarl half formed, her brow furrowing as she considered that. She'd wondered why that hadn't occurred to her, which was stupid. It hadn't occurred to her because she'd never given the whole topic of family and children much thought at all, ever. It was just one of those sometime maybe later in the future things she'd assumed she'd get to eventually, but certainly not right now. Adopting… they could adopt… maybe, she wasn't sure how being an interspecies couple would effect that… it could, probably _would_ cause all sorts of problems for them… society might be becoming more accepting of that but it was hard to overcome the inertia of so much cultural baggage… and how did she even feel about the idea?

Nadine's free paw unconsciously moved over her belly.

 _I don't want cubs right now! I'm too young to handle being a parent!_

And there was her job, and Ralph's too. How difficult would that be try raising cubs with both of them working as police officers? It wasn't exactly the easiest or safest profession. Would one of them have to stop working? She didn't want to quit her job, she didn't think Ralph would either.

Sure, the idea of having a happy little family like some perfect sitcom had its appeal, the idea of cubs was nice, the idea of raising cubs with Ralph was even nicer. But there were _so_ many problems that would cause too. Cubs would change their lives even _more_ than them becoming mates. And the idea that she couldn't give Ralph cubs of his own… It was something she'd never _ever_ worried about before today, something she'd never even thought about! And she suddenly found that it _mattered_ to her. She might not want cubs right now, but she found that she very much _wanted_ to be able to have Ralph's cubs… or pups, whatever the right term was… not right now, of course… but someday…

Nadine's paw gripped at her shirt, and she frowned deeply, fighting through the warm, far too gooey feelings the idea of having a potential family with Ralph was giving her. The little part of her mind that had been running in circles screaming hysterically was looking at the mess of slushy soppy motherly feelings she'd never had before with a look of absolute terror like the world might be ending.

How could something like that come out of nowhere and suddenly be so important to her? It never had before, and she sure as hell wasn't ready for something like _that_ yet. Not for maybe like a million years. _Then_ she might be ready for those kinds of feelings.

Nadine looked at Ralph who was waiting patiently for her to finish with her suddenly racing gooy terrifying thoughts and feelings, and her traitorous body started doing all sorts of things she didn't approve of. She could feel her eyes start to water, and there was a tight feeling in her chest, plus a sudden desire to be closer to Ralph mixed with a warmth from her stomach and a sudden urgent _need_ be more than just close with him.

The little figure in her mind took one look at the flaring heat coming from the mess of her emotions, screamed and ran for the hills.

Moments before she broke and started crying or did something ever more stupid, Nadine shoved the whole pile of newly discovered feelings into the farthest corner of her mind and locked it there. Then quarantine the site, twice, _then_ snared that screaming panicked voice and quarantine it took, just for good measure.

Those feelings were something she could examine later… with extreme caution. Maybe with a biohazard suit too.

Right now she should just stick to the facts. Facts were nice and neutral and didn't have all sorts of terrifyingly sneaky and slippery emotions attached to them.

"Ralph… I'm not so sure that adopting _would_ be possible…" she finally said her face blank.

 _Right. That was a good start. Completely rational. No need for us to go getting are hopes up for something that we aren't likely to get anyway. Stick with the facts…_

"Sure it is." Ralph said raising both eyebrows, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because…" Nadine stared at him before slowly and deliberately looking at herself and then him and then their intertwined paw, "Who would ever let us adopt? A canid, feline _interspecies_ couple? To be frank, it's already harder for predators to adopt, we're a ten percent minority and if there's one area that's riddled with outdated conservative beliefs, it's going to be with adopting. Then add in the interspecies part…"

She shook her head. "You know I'm not sure who would have more trouble adopting, Judy and Nick, being a predator his traditional prey, or us being _two_ predators and traditional adversaries at that."

Ralph nodded wisely, like he'd already considered all of that.

Nadine, dumbfounded, just stared at him.

"Oh, I won't argue that it would be hard," Ralph waving a paw at her, "But it's _not_ impossible, and if there's one good thing that comes with being part of a pack its that they have influence."

Nadine blinked.

"Wolves don't stay part of packs _just_ because its tradition or instinct, Nadine." he added, "Sure back when, it was all about physical strength and security that comes with being a group." Ralph waved that away, "That doesn't matter so much in the modern world; today it's all about influence and money and political power. My pack is _old_ , Nadine. We've been around a _long_ time. We own all of the pack neighborhood grounds so no one can evict us, or make neighborhood noise ordinances, or anything else like that; Our pack has its investments and other holdings so that when trouble does crop up we can hire out the best lawyers, hell our pack maintains some _very_ good lawyers on retainer just in case. We even have Ramsons and Goat's on retainer, though they don't like to go brandishing that fact around too much, image and all and how some of the herds might take it. And then the Alpha's are always working to make and maintain political connections. Wolves might not make up a lot of the total percent of the population but even a small portion of that population is a _lot_ of mammals, and when you can get _all_ of them to organize and strike or protest _at once_ … well it gives them a bit of political capital when you can throw a wrench like that into the city's normal functioning."

"Your kidding…" Nadine said flabbergasted.

"Nope," Ralph grinned, "Why do you think Bellwether had to resort to such extremes to try and push her Prey-First agenda forward? And then, even with the nighthowler uproar, she still wasn't able to pass any of the laws she really wanted like that idiotic collar idea."

"No, that's…" Nadine started and Ralph waved and rolled his eyes.

"Okay so it wasn't _all_ the wolves, there were a whole lot of other groups throwing up roadblocks for her too, but The Packs played a big role in it. Sheesh, you should hear the stories of what my mother and some of the other Alpha's were doing in the political backscene. There's at least one creditable story where her political maneuvering cause Bellwether to go into a frothing rage at the city council for denying her proposed changes.

Nadine shivered thinking back to Ralph's mother… That sure would explain how she'd gotten that subpoena so damned fast. The courts were about the only department mammals complained worked slower than the DMV. She shook her head. _That_ she could believe, _very_ much so in fact, she'd met the wolf in question, what she couldn't believe was…

" _Ramson's and Goat's_ work for the _**Packs**_?!" Nadine blurted out completely utterly stunned.

Ralph grinned, very _very_ wolfishly.

"Sure, their _lawyers_ , Nadine. They work for whoever can pay them. And having a sheep defending a wolf in court is a great way to help even the prejudices of a mostly prey jury."

It still just wasn't computing for Nadine. The idea of the city's most famous herd law firm working for the wolves…

"Anyway, I wouldn't worry about not being able to adopt if we want to. Though… it might take a while with how slow the courts usually are. But we _could_ if we want to." Ralph continued as Nadine tried to bend her mind around paradox of sheep defending the wolves. "My pack would back us if we wanted to. We could certainly get past any trouble obstinate parties tried to make for us." Ralph grinned, "With that kind of legal support you have a decent chance at winning most cases, but give them a case where your clearly in the right and they'll tear apart the opposition more thoroughly than any pack of wolves could." He snickered, "Lawyers are absolutely ruthless, its why we like to keep them on our side."

"But… But… the cost…" Nadine stammered, still caught up with her sheep/wolf conundrum.

"The pack would back us. They'd cover the cost, and the pack can afford it, easily. As I said our pack is an _old_ pack."

Nadine stared at Ralph some more, before he mind decided that it wasn't going to be able to get through that contradiction any time soon and decided it might be best to just go around it.

"How long have you been thinking about all of this?" She finally asked while her mind was still detouring.

Ralph blushed.

"Umm… a while…"

She stared harder.

"What?! We have a lot of time for thinking when we're on stake outs or traffic patrols or parking duty!" Ralph said shifting under her stare and blushing more, "I mean what do you think about when we're sitting in the cruiser waiting for some speeder on a slow day?"

Nadine's gaze dropped a little further down Ralph's front as she stared, then noticed were her eyes were going and quickly turned the motion into looking away before her cheeks started to burn to visibly.

" _Nothing_!" She blurted out, then immediately tried to change her story to something more believable, "I mean, I just think about… I don't know! Gossip. How the prowlers are going t beat the Pack, normal stuff! I don't think about _youuuuaaabout_ possibly starting a family!" Nadine finished after skidding her sentence like Judy in a car chase.

Ralph was grinning again, clearly not believing her and she snapped her mouth shut.

"I don't have to answer that!" She snapped.

"A good lawyer would have told you that before you spoke." Ralph quipped looking far to smuggishly happy.

Nadine covered her face with her paw and growled into it.

"Ralph…" she finally got out, even managing not to rein in her growl a little, "Fine. I'll concede that we _could_ adopt… but _Ralph_ …" She swallowed hard again, looking at him earnestly, a whole slew of riotous and conflicting emotions roiling in her. "Don't… don't you," each word felt like she was chewing glass, "want children of your own?

Ralph sighed a bit of the smugness leaving him as he looked down, and nodded his head.

"I do… I know the chances are a bit long for us, but Nadine, I wouldn't want to have pups with anyone, _but_ you. If that means when you're ready we have to adopt, then I can live with that. They'd still be _our_ children, biologically or not."

 _Wait, hold on a second! No crying yet! Wait damnit! What did he say?!_ Something in her mind was shouting, but it was muffled.

 _Oh crap I'm going to cry!_ Nadine wailed to herself as her throat started tightening.

She sniffled and felt at sob rising only for the voice being drowned out by her emotions shout desperately one last time as it was washed away.

Nadine choked on her sob as her eyes felt like they popped.

 _What did he mean by Chances?!_

"Ralph!" Nadine hacked and spluttered almost like she was spitting up a hairball, then finally got her throat clear, spluttering, " _What,_ did you mean by ' _ **Chances'**_?!"

Ralph was giving her a bit of a worried look as she coughed a few more times.

"You okay? You sounded like you might be choking for a second, I thought I was going to have to perform the Heimlich-"

Nadine threw up both her arms, "RALPH! _What_ did you mean by 'Chances'!?"

"Oh, umm… well that was my third point," Ralph said looking relieved now that she was snarling again.

Since that seemed to be reassuring to him and he hadn't answered her question to her satisfaction, she simply growled at him.

"Right, Well I um, was talking to this coywolf from a smaller pack from the meadowlands district at an interpack meeting and I ah, got curious about um…" he gestured randomly for a second then sort of at himself and then at her, "You know, about the possibilities. I mean, s _he_ was a hybrid so…"

Nadine's eyes narrowed to slits.

" _She?_ " Her voice came out with an artic chill before she even knew she was speaking.

"ahhh…" Ralph paused, ears snapping up, sensing danger, "She… was the niece of the Greyfur's Pack alpha… Denise Greyfur… My mother umm…" Ralph winced, rubbing the back of his head nervously "Sort of tricked me into going and tried to um… set me up with her while I was there… I mean she was nice and all but…"

Ralph's eyes got a little wide, and Nadine realized the air vibrating growl she was hearing was coming from her and stopped.

"I um… just for the record, all we did was talk. That once." Ralph said holding up a finger and watching her carefully, "I didn't even have to tell her I didn't want to court her because after the meeting was over she went and told my mother that there was no point in trying to get us together." Ralph frowned, looking contemplative for a second, "Actually she laughed at my mother _then_ told her there wasn't any point because 'I wasn't interested since she was the wrong _species'_. I don't know why she said that, I don't have anything against coyotes!" Ralph huffed crossing his arms, "And she's so close to looking like a full wolf that most mammals wouldn't know the difference! I caught _hell_ from my mother for apparently being an 'insensitive speciest ass' and hurting her feelings." Ralph finished muttering.

"Wait! _what_ did you say to her? And _when_ was this?!" Nadine asked her mind buzzing as she processed what he'd said. Her female intuition and police training was started to guess at what might have happened at his meeting.

 _This_ _ **is**_ _Ralph, my goofy happy smart and sometimes oh so dumb partner,_ _ **especially**_ _when it comes to females. *Huff* He's got the dating sense of a blind rhino... well except when he gets things right, he's spectacular when he gets it right…_

Nadine shook her head slightly.

 _Denise Greyfur huh… I might have to talk to her… If she really laughed at Wolford's mom I might even shake her paw…_

"Umm… last summer?" Ralph said scratching his head as he thought, before shrugging, "I mean all we did really was talk about hybrids. She was kind of peaked at first when I asked about it. Snapped that just cause she wasn't a full wolf didn't mean she couldn't mate with a wolf. But I explained that I didn't care two cents about that, that I was just asking because I was curious about wolves being able to have pups if they took a mate outside our species. She was kind enough after that, downright pleasant actually. Helpful too. I was just talking about generalities, you know like say hypothetically if a canine and a feline were mated… but well, though she didn't really know all that much but she mentioned this new clinic that specializes in interspecies couples and genetics, Honeywells was the name, said I should talk to them if I was really _that_ curious. So afterwards I went and- hey why are you shaking your head?"

Nadine had her face in both her paws

 _Ohhh Ralph… my poor foolish lovable Ralph… you told your blind date you couldn't care less about her, then start talking with her about your possibilities with someone else?_ Nadine snorted into her paws _, I'm not sure if is should be horrified about how oblivious you are or happy you shut her down with sledgehammer… scratch that, *snicker* I like it. I'll have to go apologies to her, but I_ _ **like**_ _it._

"Nothing Ralph," Nadine snickered again, "I- just, Ralph… don't ever change, okay?"

"ssssssure?" Ralph answered slowly, sounding completely confused.

"Go on…" Nadine waved a paw at him in a continue gesture, still snickering into her other, "what were you saying?"

"Right, um… well I took her advice," Ralph was still giving her a baffled look. "Interspecies couples are still rare, but its apparently common enough nowadays that there's a clinic that specializes in helping them have children."

"And what did they have to say?" Nadine said her momentary amusement dying out, "I mean we arn't two different canine species, Ralph, I doubt a clinic can overcome that."

"Ya, the way they explained it, there are limits that nothing they can do will help get past."

 _I knew it…_ Nadine thought.

She let out a breath her shoulders slumping just a bit.

"So it's lucky that we don't fall in that group-"

" _WHAT?!_ " Nadine's head snapped up.

Ralph gave her a shy sort of happy smile, his tail wagging just a bit.

"We everyone knows that there some common links in mammal evolution, I mean we all walk and talk and have opposable thumbs and the same number of chromosomes, how likely would that have been to happen with _thousands_ of different species all at the same time if there aren't _some_ fundamental similarities."

" _Ralph_." Nadine growled warningly.

"Right. Well the point is that the chances all depend on how much two species have drifted apart and just how many differences in their biology have devolved, such as size. Nearly all canines could interbreed without much difficulty, something like a mouse and an elephant or most horned and hoofed mammals with those without, well those would be practically impossible. A canine and a feline of similar size…" Ralph wavered his paw, Nadine practically staring holes through it, "Meh."

"Meh?... _MEH!?.._ _ **MEH!?**_ _What The_ _ **HELL**_ _does 'Meh'' Mean?!_ " Nadine roared at him.

"Meh." Ralph said unphased, "Maybe. We're in a bit of a middle ground. Its _possible_ , probably, but conception for us would probably also be difficult. We'd both have to go in if we want to get a better idea of just how possible. The doctor I spoke with kinda went on for a while about genetics and cell division, but what they could do to help skew the odds in our favor, but it is _possible_. They even gave me a few examples."

"This _can't_ have happened before…" Nadine said her voice a bit dull and distant in her own ears, "I'd have heard about it."

"Ehhh… not so much…" Ralph winced, "Nadine, Raising a family of our own is _not_ going to be easy. We're going to catch a whole lot of flak for it, and so would our pups."

The snarling noise Nadine made didn't contain any words, but it very clearly expressed what would happen if someone ever messed with her cubs… if she had them… someday… maybe…

"Me too." Ralph said, "But that's in _todays_ society. Back in the day mammals went to great lengths to hide any, um… oddities in their heritage. You know of the Napoleonic Wars?"

"Sure, everyone does, But that was more between the wolves and herds, felines mostly kept out of it." Nadine said still trying to tamp down the white hot rage that had flared in her.

"Ya… well, seems the rumors of why that cocky little general was so short for a wolf were true. Apparently tests showed he was half Eurasian lynx."

"Bloody hell." Nadine muttered her mind spinning as she thought of what that might mean for her.

"Um… ya that could probably be said about those he snickered about his size." Ralph said nodding his head though Nadine wasn't paying attention. The her eyes snapped back into focus.

"Wait, You looked into this _a year_ ago?!" she stared open jawed at Ralph.

"Ummm… yesss… right about the time WildeHopps started hitting the rumor mills, They'd just done a preliminary study on Rabbits and foxes since they didn't have anything or any examples on _that_ combo; turns out actually that for being predator and prey, the two are surprisingly similar in many ways, still would be tough for them, even more so than it might be for us, but not impossible…" Ralph petered out as he looked at Nadine. She was still staring at him slack jawed, and a slight blush started traveling from his cheeks and up the inside of his ears. "I ah, I did say I've um, been attracted to you for a long time now, right?" He said looked like he was trying to decide if he was in trouble.

"Looking into if we could have _cubs_?!" Nadine said flabbergasted. "Pups" muttered Ralph, his ears turning bright red on the insides, though he might have smiled. She ignored that. "Ralph, That's… That's… a whole lot more than just normal 'attracted'!" Nadine spluttered.

"Okay, so I've been _very_ attracted to you." Ralph said with a nervous shrug, "I thought once I asked you out, the topic might come up and I wanted to know beforehand so I could figure out how to best handle it if it wasn't possible."

"I- I- you said you were going to ask me out this spring?" Nadine said stunned.

Ralph shifted, "I was… that was latest plan at least."

Nadine stared at him.

He looked up and gave her a small sheepish smile, his tail slowly wagging behind him.

"My um… plan sort of fell apart yesterday…" Ralph said, then took a small halfstep closer to her, his arms behind his back, his tail wagging a bit more as he looked up with her, his happy smile growling just a bit.

 _Tha-Thump…. Tha-Thump…_ _ **Tha-Thump**_ … Nadine tried looking away but couldn't. Her heart was starting to hammer so loud she could hear it ringing in her ears. He was _soooo_ close to her. Just a tiny space between them.

"But honestly, I'm fine with that." Ralph looked happy, just… completely happy. Like he couldn't be more content with life. Seeming him like that was killing her, she didn't think she'd ever seen him that happy, she _loved_ seeing him that happy. She wished she could always see him that happy. "However much my plans have fallen apart, I'm here, right now, with you." his goofy happy grin was back. And he was watching her like she was the sole cause of it. "You. And I know how you feel. And you know how I feel. Andddd…" Ralph's goofy smile was almost to large for his face, and his ears were doing that thing were they were perked up, but ever so slightly cocked to the side that it made him look just a bit silly and playful.

 _ **Tha-Thump,Tha-Thump**_ _,_ _ **Tha-Thump**_ _,_

"You're still here with me."

Things were starting to come apart within Nadine. She couldn't help it. She'd been trying to. Trying so damned hard. She was so used to being in control of herself, of her life, of where she was and what she was going to do next.

 _I'm trapped! I'm trapped! I'm trapped! I'm trapped!_ The panicked voice she'd thought she'd secured screamed as it broke out and started bouncing around inside her head.

"There's no way out of this is there…" Nadine said her voice a bit choked.

She was terrified. She wasn't sure if she cared about that.

"Not if it's what you want." Ralph replied, but didn't move any closer to her, leaving that oh so small gap between them.

 _ **Thump!**_ Nadine's could feel the last hope for an escape slam shut before her, or that might have just been a quite choked sob. She was trapped. She knew it.

"That's _not_ fair Ralph!" Nadine choked out, raising her paws to wipe at her eyes, trying to stop the tears that were forming. "Not fair at all! Not when I love you!"

"I love you too." Ralph said quietly, his soft voice gentle, and this time she really did choke back a sob.

"Ralph…" She couldn't take it anymore.

Nadine closed the gap, needing some contact between them. She felt his arms go around her, holding her and she held him back tightly, maybe too tightly.

Ralph started to wheeze.

"Sorry! Sorry! I-" Agast, Nadine let go feeling tears starting to fall.

Ralph nipped her, silencing her apology then practically tackled her, hugged her back hard enough she was momentarily left gasping for breath.

This time she was a bit more careful with the way she held him back and took a few moments to simply enjoy how it felt to have someone she knew loved her hold her like this. She also took the time to dam up the leaks she'd sprung so she wasn't crying like a fool.

There was no denying now that she was trapped. That she wasn't going to be letting go of Ralph now. Not before her life had changed fundamentally, for better or for worse.

Still, as they stood there holding each other while the world with its music and other mammals seemed to move around the little bubble of privacy they had in the darkened concert, some part of her refused to give in. Even as she looked around her thoroughly doomed single mammal ship that was sinking out from right under her feet.

After a few sniffles, she rested her head against his and took in a deep breath.

One last shot, she was a tiger after all; she'd go down fighting, tooth and claw.

And hey, it might even work.

She could feel his cheek against hers, his gray fur pressed against her orange and black, warm, pleasant, and for the moment still.

"Ralph." Nadine found her voice surprisingly steady, almost like having him so close, soothed the agitation inside her; That with him there she didn't have to worry. "After… after this… can we hold off everything else for a while and just pretend to date? No courthouse visit to deal with the legal paperwork and fallout, no officially moving into a new den, _No_ wedding. Not yet… Just… just _us_ going home together for the night. Spending tomorrow lounging around together before going out to that dinner you promised me. Going to work the next day, then maybe a movie or a picnic before we go home together again; maybe spend a day on the beach in Sahara Square or the hot springs in Tundratown." She let out a content sigh imagining doing all that with the wolf in her arms. Especially the hotsprings; at the beach she'd be happy enough to lounge on the warm sand with her wolf but forget that cold water, no way, she wanted to get in a nice big pool of steamy _hot_ water and chase her wolf around and dunk him like she was a cub again, maybe even let him chase her a bit if he dared, then do some stuff that certainly _wasn't_ for cubs.

She could feel Ralph smiling in turn as the muscles in his muzzle moved against hers, and she couldn't resist nipping him just below his ear. She felt a slight jerk on her tail, then another, and glanced down without removing her cheek from Ralph's, only to find that she'd unconsciously wrapped her tail around the tip of his, and his tail's attempting to wag was jerking it to and fro at their side. Ralph, grinning goofishly, made an attempt to stop his undisciplined appendage but only succeeded in reducing the wagging motion so their tails (hers was refusing to untwine itself from Ralph's bushier tail) thumped lightly against their legs.

She nipped him again, and still grinning like a goof, he nipped her back.

"I want a chance to _date_ you Ralph. I don't _care_ if we've already made our choices and it's all make believe!"

Her little one mammal ship she'd been sailing along so happily in life was truly sunk. It was gasping out a few last burbles of air as it started falling below the surface, but maybe just maybe… Nadine thought as she pressed her cheek against Ralph's, she'd succeed in delaying any christening ceremony for the new ship she had. One big enough for two. It was a small victory. A pointless victory. But she'd have her fur and whiskers be damned victory, pyrrhic or not. And to hell with it all if she had to turn pirate and steal it to win. Screw whatever the port authorities said.

She'd have her cake and eat it too.

"You know even without going to the courthouse to formalize it, it's still binding under the law."

She huffed.

"I don't care if a minute from now my name isn't legally Fangmeyer anymore, I can still pretend I'm Nadine _Fangmeyer_ , ZPD officer, and tigress excitedly waiting to see what date her boyfriend is going to take her on next. And _you_ can still pretend you're Ralph Wolford, single, cluelessly trying to figure out how woe me. It might make things harder for you since you'll have to figure out how to surprise me and bring me flowers when were going to be _living_ together as well as working together but I'm sure you can figure something out.

"Woo you?" Ralph snickered happily, "That sounds so old fashioned."

"Damnit Ralph," Nadine blushed hard, "A girl has dreams! I want my shining knight in wolfish armor to come and sweep me off my feet! I want to play hard to get, I want you to come knocking on my bedroom window with sweet words before sneaking off with you late at night. I want to make the experience last! That's hard to do when you've _already_ managed to catch me before I even knew we'd started. Work with me here!"

"Okay that does sound fun," Ralph chuckled lightly, leaning his head some more against hers. He didn't rub, not yet, just made the contact stronger. "I'm gonna have to work really hard on the sweeping you off your feet part since I'm already behind, what with how many times you've thrown me over your shoulder today." Nadine's blush became a burn and she pressed back a little more against Ralph, hoping that it might hide the raging blush on her cheeks if they were pressed to his.

"As for the window, I'm not so sure…" Ralph said melodramatically, "I'd certainly _like_ to come tempt you away for a rematch from this morning, but… I have a feeling your landlady might not appreciate me howling up at your window, it being an apartment and all. Other tenants might get annoyed and I'd rather not get on her bad side, she scares the _crap_ out of me."

Nadine chuffed lightly, feeling warm and happy with her wolf in her arms and amused at the thought of the little old ewe with her cane chasing Ralph around as he howled at her window.

"Okay, we can try that over at your house then. No terrifying little landladies to chase you away and ambush me when I try sneaking down the stairs after you. Plus it's a pack neighborhood so nobody should care if you howl."

"Ummmm…" Ralph tensed slightly but didn't move away, "That might _not_ be a good idea… not until we have a chance to settle things with my pack and my mother calms down…"

Nadine groaned, and leaned heavily on Ralph.

"Can't we just tell her it's done? 'Sorry about all the confusion but set the date for 6 months or a year from now for all your hullabaloo'?"

" _Ummmm_ …"

Nadines fur started to stand on end. There was a hell of a lot he'd managed to convey in that 'Ummmm…'

" _Ralph…_ " she said closing her eyes.

"Okay, so our situation with my pack _might_ be a bit more serious than just my mother being upset…"

" _Might_?"

"Ya…. That's maybe an… understatement…"

Nadine groaned again.

"Why?"

"Pack politics."

*Groan*

"Explain… _Briefly_."

"Well… basically it's you."

* _Groan_ *

"Explain… _just slightly less_ _Briefly_." Nadine would have thumper her head against his chest if it didn't involve moving away from him.

"Well… lets just say the conservative factions of the pack are going to have kittens when they find out who I'm taking as my mate. You know, someone _not_ from some 'respected' pack, oh and on top of that there's the itsy bitsy detail you're a feline. The idea of you joining the pack is going to put a real burr up under their tails."

"Do I _have_ too?" Nadine whined, and Ralph frowned.

"Do you have to do what?" he asked bewilderedly.

" _Join the pack_?" She moaned, "It sounds like a headache."

Ralph went rigid.

"Ralph?"

He did respond and she could feel his growling alarm.

" _Ralph_?" Nadine, _grudgingly_ , pulled her cheek away from Ralph just enough so that she could look him square in the face,

"I never thought to ask… It never occurred to me…"

"Ralph! _What_ never occurred to you?" Nadine nearly snapped now getting worried herself.

His eyes focused on her.

"I never asked if _you_ wanted to join the pack!" He said voice sounding conflicted. "I assumed you would because _of_ _course_ any **wolf** I took as a mate would join my pack! It's the oldest pack in zootopia and my parents are the Alpha's so I wouldn't be joining my mates pack! Which doesn't matter since you don't have a pack, so there wouldn't even be that! But _you're_ not a _**wolf**_!"

"Ralph…" Nadine asked wanting to pinch her brow but unwilling to let go of her _almost_ mate while he was panicking, "Did you just figure out that I'm not a wolf?"

"I- No, that's not… well, ugh! _Nadine_!" Ralph said exasperated and alarmed, "You are _not_ a Wolf!"

"Huh, I never knew that." Nadine said rolling her eyes.

Ralph stared at her, then spoke slowly fidgeting in nervous agitation.

"It never occurred to me that you _wouldn't_ join my pack Nadine. Any wolf would, so I assumed. I didn't _ask_ you! I Don't know if you _want_ to join my pack!"

Nadine mulled that over for a second. The whole thing still seemed a bit silly to her. Granted that bonus about the lawyers seemed nice, but she couldn't help the instinctual exasperated thought of, _wolves,_ with its accompanying mental eye roll. At the same time though, the pack seemed like such a large part of Ralph's life. She couldn't really imagine him without it. Then again she'd never really imagined being his mate either, daydreamed, fantasized, sure. But never really thought about it in all its details.

She'd been around Ralph enough to pick up this and that about packs, but not really enough to fully understand them. The only thing she did get about them was that they seemed like a real pain to deal with, particularly 'pack _politics'_.

"Sooo… what if I'm not too keen on the idea of joining?" Nadine asked.

Ralph locked up and his eyes started getting _wide_.

"I have to tell the pack I'm leaving…" Murmured Ralph, his eyes a bit distant.

"Ralph!" Nadine said trying to snap him back. "Why can't you just stay part of the pack, while I'm just… not."

Ralphs distant stare focused back on her and his jaw dropped, swinging for a moment, a look of complete and total incomprehension on his face.

For a moment she thought she'd broken him. Then Ralph shook his head in a violent negation.

"NO. A split like that would tear the pack apart, it might hurt _us_. If my mate doesn't want to be pack, then I'll leave the pack." Ralph's tone left no room for argument or debate. He looked at her and trembled slightly before his arms gripped her so tightly it almost hurt.

"I'll call my parents as soon as we leave here. They need to know right away."

"Ralph." Nadine tried interjecting as Ralph trembled again, but he didn't seem to hear her.

"-we can get my things out of my house tonight. It's best if we get this over with before-

" _Ralph!_ "

"-word spreads around the pack about me leaving. Having to go back after might-"

"Ralph, _Damnit_!" Nadine bit his nose. "Stop!"

Ralph yipped in surprise, his ears snapping back before his mouth closed.

Nadine sighed at the almost lost, confusion look on her wolf and tapped her forehead against his in defeat.

"I'll join the damned pack."

"But, Nadine! I'm _not_ going to make you do something-"

" _Ralph_ , shut up and don't argue with me on this!" Nadine snarled and bumped his head with hers, "It's too important to you. I'm not jumping with joy about it, but I'm not going to make you leave just to be with me."

She tilted her head so that their eyes met. His agitated and hers stern and for a few moments there was a struggle. Then Ralph looked down and she gave a small weak smile and short kiss.

The kiss, at least, seemed to cheer him up a bit, judging by how his ears perked up.

"If joining the pack is the price I have to pay for us then fine, I'll try to play nice with the wolves." Nadine said sternly, a bit grumpily, be definitely sternly.

Her tail, still wrapped up with his started thumping against her leg again, and she tried to scowl only to fail.

"Umm… okay." Ralph said looking at her almost bashfully, "You do know that means… um… we're going to have to deal with my… mother…"

And a streak of terror ran through her like a lightning bolt and spiked her fur frizzly. She could see her last ditch effort, her last shot starting to drift off course and fall.

 _No. No. No. NO! We_ _ **just**_ _got away from her!_

Nadine pulled her arms from Ralphs back and gripped both of his shoulders before pushing her nose into his.

"Ralph. Look here." She said met his eyes again, challengingly, more serious then than she'd ever been in her life, "This is where I'm drawing my line! You want me to be your _**mate**_. Fine, I'll be yours on one condition. We are _**not**_ going to let your parents drag us home! Not, by all the gods, _**Tonight**_. We can deal with them and the pack and whatever hellspawned issue this city throws at us tomorrow, But. _Not_. _**Tonight**_! If you want me that's my price." She growled, "Take it or leave it!"

She put everything she had into her near glare, as she stared into his eyes from across their muzzles, her nose still pushing hard into his.

 _Take it, take it, take it, damnit Ralph! I can't budge further than that. I'm not bluffing… I don't think I'm bluffing… Don't call my bluff, just take it_ _ **damnit**_ _!_

Something sparked behind his gold eyes, and Nadine shivered. It was something primal, yet almost playful, like he knew _exactly_ what she was thinking. She threw everything she had into her glare, narrowing her eyes, meeting his eyes, her lip curling showing her fangs as a low snarl built in her throat and her tail curled tightly pinning his against their bodies.

A slow smile built on Ralph's muzzle. A goofy predatory _wolfish_ smile, And without breaking eye contact, he slid his muzzle the side, then up along hers. Nadine gasped in surprise, her hard glare disintegrating.

"I'll take that, but then that would make you _**mine**_ , Nadine." Ralph growled happily after the long rub against her cheek and pulled back so that their noses where touching again, " _My_ **mate**."

 _Oh crap, oh crap. I promised, and he just asked. Deliberately, undeniably, I won't be able to hide_ _ **that**_ _one. Wait… did I win or lose that?_

Nadine broke eye contact, trying to look down at her cheek, and failed, bobbing her head up and down trying again, went a bit crosseyed this time, then snapped her head up to look back at Ralph her jaw open and speechless.

He didn't say anything just waited, goofy happy smile on his face as he watched her.

She gapped some more, but he only smiled, still waiting patiently, not even a trace of agitation or trepidation at what her response might be now.

 _Crap and why would he be worried now? It's not like he hasn't been able to pull out and see every little last feeling I have._

Nadine blushed _hard_ watching him watch her, and without thinking her head moved forward. She stopped, hesitating, her nose just past his now.

She breathed hard, her heart feeling like it was going to break out of her chest with every beat; just a tiny gap between her muzzle and Ralph's.

Still… he just waited... watching her happy.

Nadine closed her eyes, thinking about what this meant, thinking about Ralph, and everything they'd been through these past years, thinking about her dreams, thinking about him, his goofy smile, his kindness, the resolve and strength that usually hid behind his easy going attitude. Thinking about how just being around him made her happy, about all the other things that being around him did to her and ignored for so long, thinking about being able to _always_ be with him. About him being _hers_.

Her muzzle touched his, the fur of her cheek sliding throw his course grey hairs while he stood waiting.

Nadine's eyes snapped up and she pulled her head back with a small strangled gasp, staring at the spot on his cheek her muzzle had just marked.

 _I didn't- I was only thinking about- oh crap, I did it. I marked Ralph back. I just claimed him._ Nadine thought in a panic, while heat seemed to suffuse her body.

Ralph raised a paw up to touch his cheek, his happy look giving way to one of wonder and awe.

His eyes traveled up to meet hers and a _searing_ blush rolled over her face, the likes of which she'd never felt before.

Ralph's smile seemed to practically explode, and he moved forward past her numb paws still on his shoulders.

He stood on his toes and ran his muzzle back against her _other_ cheek marking that side too. Nadine felt like her world was crumbling under the pounding of her heart. Her footing was giving away out from under her and she didn't know what to think.

She was falling, caving, breaking under the onslaught of feelings spilling out inside her. She was leaning her head back against his and marking him as he marked her.

* * *

"This song drives me nuts!" Cassy growled and Greg held back a snicker as he held her paw in his and her waist with his other while they danced, "I want to go up there and bite her! Show her what a _real_ she-wolf is like when you slur our reputation. I can't _believe_ mammals think that we act like-"

"Cassy… It's just a song." Greg said soothingly, pulling her into a slow spin as they danced a bit out of tune to the music while the songs hit the refrain again.

 _~There's a she wolf in the closet~_

 _~Open up and set her free (ahoo)~_

 _~There's a she wolf in the closet~_

 _~Let it out so it can breath~_

"It's a very popular song, sung by a very popular singer, which plays on that idiotic myth of lycanthropy of all things, _which_ might I remind you got almost as many mammals killed back in medieval times as witch burnings did! _And_ if **that** wasn't bad enough they make it sound like a she-wolves are sex craved predators even more so than they do _vixens_! I mean just listen to this!"

 _~Sitting across the bar, staring right at her prey~_

 _~It's going well so far, she's gonna get her way~_

 _~Nocturnal creatures are not so prudent,~_

 _~The moon's my teacher, and I'm her student~_

Greg did snicker this time as _his_ she-wolf seemed to quite literally fume in his arms.

"I don't know…" Greg Wolford murmured, then grinned wickedly at his wife, "sounds an awful lot like how we first met."

" _Greg_!" Cassandra squawked, then seemed to ignite as her cheeks turned dark with a deep blush, "That's not! We _did_ court formally! I- we might have started courting… unexpected… But there was _nothing_ improper about it!" Cassy tried to rally and meet his grinning eyes, then blushed _harder_ and muttered, " _So it was winter and we both were a bit drunk, we_ _ **still**_ _courted properly_ …"

 _~To locate the single man~_

 _~I've got on me a special radar,~_

 _~And the fire department's hot line~_

 _~in case I get in trouble later~_

 _~Not looking for cute little divas~_

 _~Or rich city guys that just want to enjoy~_

 _~I'm having a very good time~_

 _~and behave very bad in the arms of a boy~_

"Oh I think the songs got it at least a bit right, you _were_ a bit of a _bad_ wolf that night." Greg chuckled remembering the night he'd met his then future mate with relish as the song's refrain came again.

 _~There's a she wolf in the closet~_

 _~Open up and set her free (ahoo)~_

"I remember drinking at the bar with my pack mates when this pretty little she wolf who'd been eying me-"

"Oh no, not this story! Greg come on!" Cassy whined.

Grinning, he just continued. Cassy groaned, knowing she wasn't going to be able to stop him and thumped her head against his chest.

"-came up and demanded I dance with her out of the blue. Quite the feisty little she-wolf she was, practically dragged me away from my pals and _then_ …"

"Greg!" She huffed obstinately, "I- I wasn't thinking my best that night! _My_ friends were talking about _your_ friends and I'd just been listening you talk and you seemed like a nice enough wolf and I just wanted the one dance! I didn't mean to- I'd had a little too much and-"

"and you punched out the daughter of my clan alphas when she tried to interrupt our dance,"

"Greg! I-"

"Then _kissed_ me right there in front of her and everyone and dragged me out of the bar before we even knew each others names."

" _Greg_!" Cassy whined embarrassedly.

"and upset not only my arranged marriage in my old pack, but the alliance between your pack and the Sahara's biggest pack's-"

"Hey! Things worked out!" Cassandra spluttered, finally looking up at him, her face flushed with embarrassment and defiance.

"I was _never_ going to marry that pompous little stuck up prick even if he was going to inherit their pack! I'd made that perfectly clear to _everyone_! And I had no idea about that arrangement your family had with your packs alphas! Anyway, _she_ certainly hadn't staked her claim on you, hell she'd been flirting with that other wolf! I thought _they_ were together. She only seemed to care one wit about you after _I_ started dancing with you! I just- _damn it_ Greg!"

Cassy let out a loud huff and poked him.

"Even just having met you I knew you were too nice for that bitchy bitch and she acted like she _owned_ you! She deserved that punch after what she said!"

Greg snickered and kissed his wife.

"That she did. But that was still one hell of an uproar we caused. My old pack upset you laid out 'the pack princess' and then 'stole' me away. The Sahara pack upset over me having cut in and messed things up for their wolf…" He laughed again, and Cassy groaned, "your parents _walking_ _in_ on us asleep in your room the next morning…"

"So I made a bit of a scene!" Cassy said, then glared up at him, "Things would have worked out fine if it weren't for you, you know! After that chewing out we managed to convince our parents to play it off as a temporary infatuation and you agreed. We were _supposed_ to court for a few weeks to sooth ruffled feathers and make it look all prim and proper and then call it off! Meanwhile you got the chance to ditch Miss Entitled and I got out of having to even _try_ courting that other pack's wolf! For a spur of the moment plan after waking up in bed with a wolf I barely knew it was great! An awesome plan! A perfect plan." She glared at him, "Then you screwed it up!"

Greg tried to keep a smirk off his face as he smiled down at her glare.

"Oh, and how did I do that?"

She reached up and flicked his ear.

"You _Gregory_ , were supposed to be my fake boyfriend for a few weeks after we had winter run in at the bar! You _weren't_ supposed to then go and actually fall in love with me. You _certainly_ weren't supposed to make me fall for _you_! _That_ was _**not**_ part of my plan!"

Trying not to snicker, Gregory leaned forward and nuzzled Cassy.

"It might not have been _your_ plan, but are you sure that it wasn't all part of _my_ plan?" He said teasingly into her ear.

He got a huff and a nip for that before she nuzzled him back.

"I wouldn't put it past you." She turned her head and kissed him briefly as they danced slowly to their own beat among the faster pace of the music.

"It's always the nice unassuming ones you have to watch out for, isn't it?" She mumbled, though her irritation now seemed forced, especially given how she was leaning into him.

Greg didn't answer but just kissed her back, swayed with her as the song started coming to an end.

He'd _maybe_ been hoping he'd caught her eye way back when after his pack-mate pointed out the pretty she-wolf with her friends poking and prodding her as she sneaked glances at him, but he was pretty sure that they been dancing to someone else's plan. After all, they both had only been at the bar that night because their friends dragged them there; and something about the way her parents had caught then cuddling in the morning… about how the uproar and sudden shift in arrangements between the pacts and the way their scowling parents seemed to so easily accept their panicked and hurriedly put together idea to play off the scandal with a short courtship was too clean. Hell, they'd only come up with that idea because of something their parents said while berating them.

Cassy was good when it came to dealing with pack politics, but she'd had to learn from someone and their parents had seemed just a bit _too_ pleased with themselves when their short 'fake' courtship for proprieties sake lengthen… then turned into something not so fake.

 _~S-O-S she is in disguise~_

 _~S-O-S she is in disguise~_

 _~There's a she wolf in the closet~_

 _~Open up and set her free (ahoo)~_

"I still don't like that song," Cassy pouted, though it seemed more for form than anything considering how relaxed against him she now seemed, "It stereotypes wolves, plus they don't have _any_ idea how to howl properly."

"It's just a pop song dear," Greg said softly nuzzling her, smiling as his fiery feisty mate seemed to calm and all but melt against him. He kissed her forehead.

"If anything Cassy, it shows how perceptions are changing since, stereotypical or not, there's a song out all about wolves that's very popular among the younger generation of prey mammals. I think it shows hope for the future."

"still don't like it…" she murmured, snuggling against him.

"Hummm… yet you're still dancing to it." He replied feeling stupidly happy.

"No… I'm dancing with you. That's different."

She nipped his shoulder lightly, more of a kiss and nuzzle really.

"All part of the plan." Greg replied contentedly and took a few moments to simply enjoy holding his wife. He didn't really care who's plan it had been, he just cared that he ended up with someone he loved and that loved him back.

He smiled feeling his tail wag, then snickered.

"And speaking of plans, how did your little scheming session with the Bogo's go?"

She snorted into his shoulder.

"They could run a pack of their own if they wanted to." She let out another amused snort, "Though, the fact that their buffalo sure does seem to show; their plan isn't all that subtle."

"You think it will work?"

"Oh I'm _sure_ it will work. It could do a cleaner job of getting them together at the wedding tomorrow, but their plan will do the job." She snickered. "And Bess is having too much fun with it anyway, have you seen how much of a tizzy she has her husband in over 'his' little cupid scheme?"

"So you're on board with it?"

Cassandra's lips narrowed for an instant as she looked over his shoulder, but then she nodded.

"It's going to mess with our time table. I'd rather go grab our pups _now_ … but we can make it work. Anyway, that just means that we have time to pick up the Fangmeyer's at the train station and bring them along too." She grinned wickedly. "Lets see her try to escape from us _and_ them."

Greg took a look over Cassy's shoulder as they continued to spin slowly in the small circle they were making and spotted Ralph and Nadine where they'd tried to hide and smiled.

Seeing a tiger and a wolf together certainly looked a bit odd, but then again they just seemed… right.

It was something about the way they reacted to each other, the way they held each other. How Ralph comforted her when she'd started crying and how she'd brought him back to his senses when Ralph seemed like he was panicking.

Granted they didn't seem to have quite the magnetic pull to each other their friends did. But then again that was probably a good thing, his son might be a bit of a love sick idiot, but he at least seemed to have retained some of his wits.

He watched both couples or _not_ _quite_ couples for a second then let out an amused snicker.

That bunny and fox seemed like they were tied together, maybe with a Bungiecord given how she waggled her tail and he seemed to plaster himself to her. And yet unlike his son, Greg couldn't help but think with a bit of pride for his boy, those two still hadn't even begun to figure- out what they were yet.

"Foxes…" He muttered with an amused shake of his head before the slow circle they were dancing took them out of his view.

Cassy took a quick look over her shoulder before rolling her eyes.

"He's not really _that_ dense is he? I mean from what Ralph has told us about them I'd think he'd have figured it out by now."

Greg shook his head.

" _Foxes_ , Cass. They have their own rules. He probably suspects, or hopes at least… but until _she_ makes her position clear he's a bit stuck."

Cassy let out muffled snort.

"Right. _Stuck_. Sure he is." She turned her muzzle into his should and let out another muffled laugh.

"Really?" Greg said grinning, "Knot jokes Cassy? I though stuff like that was beneath you."

"Oh Shush, It's just you and me here and you have no room to talk after intentionally starting a howl earlier." She tried to reach up to flick his ear but he playfully nipped her finger before she could.

That got a nip in return, so he stole a kiss, and that led to some other juvenile behavior that Cassy only indulged in when they weren't in view of their pups or any others of their pack.

"Mmhhmmm… " Cassy sighed contentedly after, resting her head on his shoulder, though the fur on her muzzle was a bit ruffled. "You really couldn't do anything about his _stuck_ *snicker* problem when he was holding you hostage with his mighty *snicker* Carrot?"

"And you call _me_ a perpetual teenager." Greg said with a mock harrumph, and Cassy grinned against his shoulder.

"I just hide it better than you." She replied and nuzzled his neck.

"Well, I'll just take that as a compliment" Greg grinned goofily, "But as for that mighty carrot wielding fox, all my efforts were for _naught_." Cassy snickered into his neck and he smiled and rubbed his cheek between her ears. "Really though, I tried, but he's a bit… um… touchy about the subject…"

"You mean she's got him wound tighter than a frustrated pup chasing their own tail?"

"That and he's still a male fox, they're weird when it comes to professing love, plus, well… even if he weren't a fox, he'd probably have a hard time telling her. I don't think he's much of one to share how he really feels…"

"Ugh… one of those?"

"Ya… one of those. He needs to work through that issue himself."

Cassandra huffed exasperatedly.

"Then he really does need someone like that bunny as a mate. _She'll_ even him out. She was practically bursting with how she felt."

Greg nodded.

"I think so too, they'll be good for each other. Out of curiosity though," Greg asked looking down at his mate, "Why didn't you just knock some sense into that bunny when you had her?"

Cassy growled frustratedly into his shoulder.

"I can't tell you how close I came to doing just that. Dumb bunny, I practically _did_ tell her."

Greg looked over toward where the two were, just past his son and soon to be daughter-in-law, or he assumed that's where both of them were since at a quick glance their silhouette looked more like a lone fox with bunny ears. A closer glance in the darken stadium though revealed the bunny in the arms of the fox, though there was still that hesitant vibe that told him neither had told the other yet.

"hummm, still I kind of expected you to clue her in…"

"I _did_ 'clue' her in! Multiple times!"

"By 'clue her in', I mean more like _Hammer_ it in." Greg clarified

" _Ugh_ ," He didn't even need to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes, "Well first I was trying to get her to help corner Ralph and his mate, though I think we have that covered now" Cassy's eye roll was followed by a wolfish grin, only for her to roll her eyes again, "but also, well, the only reason she _hasn't_ told _him_ is because she thinks he's in love with someone _else_!"

Greg's brow furrowed. "How on earth did she come to _that_ conclusion?"

"Remember these?" Cassy tapped the heart shaped stickers they had on their cloths, one saying 'Papa Wolf' and the other 'Mama Wolf'.

"Ya?" Greg said, grinning as he looked at her sticker.

"Well…" Cassy took the lead in their little dance and turned them before pushing his muzzle with her so that he was looking at the small duo.

" _Apparently_ , He's _**told**_ her that he's in love with a 'Foxy Lady'."

Greg squinted at the two small mammals for a second before it struck him.

"oh… _Oh!_ " He let out an amused snort followed by an exasperated groan.

"Really, he couldn't have just… I mean how can she not… That's just…"

Greg stopped his spluttering and let out another groan.

" _Foxes_ …"

"Foxes." Cassy snickered and agreed, then kissed his cheek.

"But don't worry, Fox or not, Bogo's plan will work. As soon as the concert starts to end they'll get the message and then we help herd them out the door. With them running in a blind panic with our son's mate, they'll never see the trap coming and then their gonna be _really_ … **Stuck**!"

Cassy snickered again.

"Then we pick up the Fangmeyer's from the train station and go extract the bride and groom and their best mammals and then, off to the wedding. Simple as that."

Greg shook his head.

"You, Cassy, are a devious alpha, you know that?" he kissed her nose, then grinned adding, "I think your parents would be proud."

"Well…" she was grinning a bit goofishly now too, "I did learn from the best."

There was a commotion on stage that had both of them looking over there shoulders as the crowd roared its approval. But Cassy let out a startled gasp and grabbed his shoulder and excitedly pointed over to the side.

"Greg, Greg! Look! I think they're going to- oh _darn it!_ " Cassy quickly wiped at her eyes, though she had the biggest grin on her muzzle that he'd ever seen and her tail was waving furiously.

Greg just held her close, feeling a welter of emotions as he watched too. Watched as his son slowly and very deliberately rub his cheek on the tigress's.

He might have chuckled at the shocked look that ran across her face as she tried futilely to look at the spot on her muzzle Ralph had just marked but he was feeling a bit choked up as well, and instead just grabbed his wife's paw as they watched.

The tigress looked up, looked down, looked up, gapped, blushed, moved forward, _hesitated_ … then…

Cassy let out a small stifled noise before squeezing his paw.

"Oh Greg… they… they're…" she cut off with a choked back happy sob as Ralph moved forward and marked her other cheek in return.

'Yes, yes they have." He replied, his voice a bit husky with emotion to as he squeezed her paw back and laid his head against hers, watching as his son and daughter-in-law exchanged marks, then did it again…

and again…

Ralph nuzzling and rubbing against the side of her muzzle, then against her neck and under her chin while she moved her cheek over his nose and up his snout to mark his ears and then move down his cheek to his neck.

They didn't stop to kiss or talk, only marked each other with a single minded intensity.

Greg took a moment as the sound of a song, a very familiar old song started, to look at Cassy and smile with pride.

"looks like our boy's well and truly caught his happiness."

Cassy nodded with a sniffled before holding him close, both of them watching the two young mammals, his and Cassy's tails fanning the air behind them.

* * *

"YYYYeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss!"

"Bess…"

" _Scoreeeeeeeeeeee!_ "

" _Bess…"_

"I can't believe we actually got to see them actually claim each other, that's… that's…"

" _Ugh_ …" Bogo reached up and rubbed his brow with his hoof.

"That's just _adorable_!" Bess squealed excitedly, pressing up next to him while Bogo worked hard not to blush.

Though of course, he was only working not to blush because of the way as his wife was squeezing him as she practically bounced in place, her chest pressed up against his arm. He certainly wasn't blushing for any other reason Bogo assured himself.

"Isn't that just the most wonderful thing?" Bess asked deftly hooking her horn with his and turning so he had no choice but to look at the tiger and wolf, then gave him a peck on the cheek.

Bogo lost his battle not to blush.

Bess giggled.

Trying to rally for an orderly retreat, Bogo harrumphed.

"Yes dear, its very nice that Fangmeyer and Wolford have worked out _their_ relationship. I at least won't have to deal with a tiger going savage now… but _they_ weren't the ones I was worrying about!"

He tried to scowl for emphasis, but another peck on his cheek from Bess made it go all crocked and start to turn up at the edges before he beat it back down. His blush got worse though.

Bess giggled again, before smothering the sound with her hoof.

"Well," She coughed and then put on a serious expression… or _tried_ putting on a serious expression, the result was rather comical with how eager and excited she still seemed, "Your small officers do seem to be quite stubborn now don't they?" she looked over toward where they'd finally caught a glimpse of the two still holding each other while they'd been dancing, then unable to hold her melodramatic serious expression any longer grinned and peck the side of his muzzle.

"But don't worry dear, You'll have that problem fixed soon enough." Bess all but giggled, "Clawhauser sent word a few minutes ago that all the preparations are ready for that little contingency plan of yours and that the messenger is on the way." She _did_ giggle this time, almost evilly so, "Let's see if they can keep from spilling how they feel to each other after _that_."

Bogo blushed badly, feeling ever so slightly uncomfortable now that things were well and truly out of his control.

"Bess… you don't think that this might be trying to push them _too_ much, do you?" He asked, confiding his niggling worry to his wife.

"Oh absolutely not!" She huffed indignantly, "Those two need all the help they can get! They're just lucky they have _you_ watching out for them! Not every Boss cares so much."

"Right… well," Bogo coughed into his hoof embarrassedly, "It was turning into a morale issue…"

"Of course! And you couldn't let that happen now could you?" Bess said with a coy smile that made Bogo's cheeks heat.

Still grinning she moved forward taking his hoof and turning him back toward the stage.

"Now why we wait, why don't we work on raising _your_ morale a bit dear? There about to start the next song and I know someone you might want to dance a bit more with!" She said teasingly, scooting closer to him and Bogo nearly jumped as her tail smacked his rear.

His eyes popped a little and he glanced at the stage, then over toward his officers, blushed, looked at his wife who was giggling at him, blushed _more_ , then harrumphing, focused his attention firmly (if not completely considering how his hoof's held his wife's) back on the stage were Gazelle was taking the center spotlight, microphone in hoof to cheers of the crowd.

" _Thank you Zootopia!"_ Gazelle's voice boomed over the loudspeakers as his wife giggled again and scooted in front of him so they could dance together.

" _In honor of Valentine's day we have a special song for the occasion, But as I can't sing it alone I'd like you all to welcome our special guest singer!"_

Bess bumped her hips back against him as the lights on stage flashed and an elk wearing a white blazer and orange tinted glasses strode on stage. Bogo, momentarily distracted from the stage, snorted, his hoofs holding his wife's tightening a bit. She just giggled.

" _Please give a Zootopia Welcome toooo…_

 _Elkton John!"_ Gazelle called out and the crowd cheered again as the elk gave a wave and a small bow before shaking Gazelle's hoof, then exchanging a friendly hug with the other singer.

"Oh, _this_ should be good!" Bess half giggled half squeaked from within Bogo's arms as all the lights dimmed down.

Nothing on stage except for the two large screens to either side could be seen for a few seconds, and even those only showed a camera's panning view of the excited crowd beyond the darkened stage.

Then a single spot light illuminated the center stage, showing the elk now sitting at large grand piano as he started playing.

 _~I can see what's happening,~_

 _ **~What?!~**_ One of the tiger dancers came skidding into the spotlight at the edge of the piano asking.

 _~And they don't have a clue!~_ The elk continued waving out at the crowd

 _ **~Who?!~**_ the other three dancers chorused questioningly as they also came hurriedly into view, paws on the piano top.

Bess giggled in Bogo's arms and nudged him, pointing over to a gap in the crowd as she whispered into his ear.

"Now isn't _that_ true?"

Bogo had to squint a bit, but then he let out an amused snort as he spotted the two small shapes, one with his arms wrapped around the other just like Bogo was doing with his wife.

 _~They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line,~_

 _~Our trio's down to two.~_

 _ **~Oh.~**_ the tiger dancers all said at once as if suddenly understanding. The large screens to the side of the stage showed a close up of them and the piano as the tiger dancers looks of sudden comprehension turned to confusion, and they comically glanced around at each other. One even going so far as to look at the others and counting off the four of them on his fingers with a baffled expression.

"No, don't you see?" The elk at the piano bench said, grinned at the tigers as he gave an amused shake of his antlers before waving out over the crowd, the camera's view of them on the screams following his motion to pan over the audience as he continued.

 _~The sweet caress of twilight,~_

 _~There's magic everywhere.~_

 _~And with all this romantic atmosphere…~_

 _~Disaster's in the air!~_

A shiver ran up Bogo's spine that wiped his half formed smile away and for a moment he could have sworn he heard someone whispering _Dooooomed!_ in the back of his mind.

Bess must have felt it, or sensed him tense, because she turned her head and gave him a reassuring smile and quick kiss just as the spotlight on the stage brightened and Gazelle entered singing on the other side of the piano nearer to the elk.

 _~Can you feel the love tonight?~_

 _~The peace the evening brings?~_

 _~The world, for once, in perfect harmony,~_

 _~With all its living things!~_

Bogo smiled back at Bess and gave her a quick kiss in return which had her beaming. Then her smile got even larger, _dangerously_ large.

"Dear I think you might be able to do a better job than that little kiss." Bess said wickedly, glancing over toward the stage. As he looked toward were she'd glanced, she added with a giggle, "We're on camera!"

Bogo's eyes felt like they might pop as he saw that the two screens behind the stage were now showing views of the crowd, specifically close up shots of couples in the crowd dancing or kissing each other and one of those views was of a cape buffalo couple, one of which was staring wide eyed at the camera while the other smirked.

Then, the female buffalo on the camera hooked her horn with the males and yanked his head down into a spectacular kiss. Though… Bogo didn't really see that last part since his view was suddenly obstructed and he was abruptly preoccupied with other things, but he could certainly vouch for the spectacularness of the kiss.

It even made up for his sudden mortifying embarrassment.

* * *

 _Judy… have I told you about this girl I've fallen in love with?_

The words seemed to echo around in Judy's head as she stood there frozen in place, not even her heart seeming to move. All reason and thoughts seemed to have fled and those repeating words were all she could think of.

Part of her didn't want to know, feared knowing because once she knew… once she _knew…_

Her frozen heart seemed to shake dangerously, _painfully_ , hinting at what was probably about to come.

But she _had_ to know. **Had** to. Knowing might destroy her, but this not knowing was slowly eating away at her and she just _had_ to know!

Judy tried to speak but the sound caught in her throat. She tried again, and managed to squeak out a "No," along with a shake of her head.

That seemed to break the impasse and she blurted out, "Nick, _who_ is she?"

Nick let out a resigned sigh and seemed to slump against her, his muzzle resting tiredly between her ears as if to use her to prop himself up.

 _Normally_ when Nick did something like that or used her as an armrest it drove her crazy and got him an elbow for his trouble, but for the moment, irritating or not, she just wanted him close to her as she might just be about to lose even the _fantasy_ of ever having him. Really, she wanted to clutch onto him and not let go… but she couldn't… not if it wasn't what he... not if he was already in love with someone else…

Not if-

"Judy… have you ever met someone that completely turned your life upside down? Made you rethink everything you'd ever thought, or believed, or even wanted?"

Judy's mouth went dry, and she nodded.

"Yes… when-" _when I meet you_ … she wanted to say, but the words wouldn't come out so she just croaked out another, " _Yes_."

She felt Nick's head on hers nod slightly.

"Ya, it's something isn't it? I mean, _you_ came bouncing into my life, into the nice easy little hustle routine I'd set up and toppled everything. Had me giving up hustling and signing up to become a _police_ _officer_ , a _**fox**_ _police officer_ of all things! Who would have ever thought something like that was even possible?! _I_ never imagined that something like that could happen!" Nick let out a defeated sigh, his breath ruffling her long ears. "Never really thought I'd end up falling _ears_ over tail for someone either…"

"Ears over tail…" Judy repeated a bit numbly, her mind briefly thinking back to feeling of holding Nick's luxurious tail; of what long vixen's tail had caught his eye… He might have glanced at her when she'd all but shaken it in his face, but how could her little puff really compare to a sexy vixen's…

Judy tried to rally her thoughts without much success, mumbling, "Over tail… did… do you mean you fell for her at first glance?... like storybook love at first sight…"

"Oh _Karma_ no!" Nick's derisive snort ruffled her ears. "I thought she was a 'doe'y eyed rube with delusions of grandeur when I first meet her!" Nick shook his head. "Turns out though, that she was more right than me. Personally I think what I've managed to do with my life since I meet _you_ is pretty amazing, but it pales in comparison to _her_." He let out a long sigh, "Judy, she's really something special…"

Then he chuckled softly. "Though she can still be a bit of a rube sometimes. Even though we got off to a bad start, she ended up stealing my heart, hustled it away before I knew what had happened _and_ she did it without even knowing she had!" Nick huffed indignantly.

"Really, I think I have you, _Judy Hopps,_ " Nick tapped her head mockingly with his muzzle, "to blame for having my heart stolen away like that!"

"W-W- _WHAT_?!" Judy spluttered, her ears snapping up.

This was _HER_ fault?! How?! Why?! That made _no_ sense! She certainly hadn't done anything to help set him up with anyone! If anything she _might_ have tried to monopolize his attention!

Nick actually snickered, then lightly flicked one of her upright ears.

"Carrots, when I was being a crusty old shrew of a hustler, _and don't you dare tell Fru Fru I ever said anything like that_ , I _never_ let anyone get so close to me that they could do something like steal my heart." Nick sighed, slumping against her again. "Since meeting you Judy, I've… well…" he stopped, seeming to consider for a second then continued, "I used to keep to myself Judy, trusted only myself. I kept myself emotionally shut off from the world and everyone else; even my family, and friends I've known all my life, like Finnick." Nick exhaled slowly again contemplatively, and flicked her other ear. " _You_ changed that, Judy. You made me start to open up."

Judy opened her mouth about to speak but he snickered and cut her off.

"Okay, maybe not all that much, it's a work in progress, Fluff, but you _have_. And I really have to thank you for that." Nick said and then _hugged_ her.

Really, _really,_ hugged her. Not a charming hug or a desperate hug... just a hug. A real, caring hug that made her feel warm and fuzzy all the way to her core. A tender hug that with all the other conflicting emotions pinging around inside, made her want to grin stupidly…

...and also want to break down and cry.

So it was probably a good thing that he was hugging her, because that was all that prevented her from doing just that. Except that then, after a second (or was it a minute? longer?) his hug _stopped_ , his arms holding her loosening.

Judy, still in a state of shock over her inner turmoil, none the less recognized an opening and jumped on it, turning around so that she could finally look directly at him, see what emotions he'd hadn't let her see before.

Nick though, damn the sly fox, seemed prepared and as his arms slipped down he took a small step back so that they ended up facing each other, his paws on her hips with a small but respectful gap between them as if they were politely dancing at the carrot day festival, his normal polite mask fully back in place.

Judy's ears snapped down in sudden frustration at being out-foxed again.

Nick grinned and then tapped her nose.

Her ears snapped back up like he'd pushed a spring release button and Judy clenched her jaw, feeling about ready to fume.

"So, you see, Judy, it really is all _your_ fault that I ended up falling in love." His grin became a smirk and he snickered. "I'd apologize for how off I've been this winter… but… it's just easier to blame it all on _you_."

Nick's return to his usually teasing and smirkishness and blasé-hustler manner was the carrot that broke the barrel for Judy.

"ME? My Fault?! It's all _**MY**_ **Fault** _ **?!**_ " Judy burst out, all her frustrations and worries bursting into irrational anger. She was going to _clobber_ that fox! She'd turn his tail into her own personal _pillow and joyfully snuggle into it each and every night_! She'd drag him to the boxing ring and _knock_ some answers out of him! She'd-

"Yep," Nick said casually and daintily tapped her nose.

"All…"

 _tap_

" _ **Your**_ …"

 _tap_

"Fault."

 _Tap_

Judy's ears angled backwards with each tap till they were facing the ground at a stiff, forty five degree angle so sharp it she could have used it as a protractor.

"Huh…I didn't know bunny's _could_ growl." Nick commented with a grin. "Then again…" he added sweetly, "It is the _**cutest**_ growl I've ever heard. I mean like **seriously** _**cute**_. But then again you are a bunny, a very, _very_ _**CUTE**_ _bunny_ , so it only makes sense that your growl would be-"

"Be very careful with what you say next Nick…" Judy cut him off warningly, trying to stop her molars from grinding. "Because you might regret what happens if you say 'cute' again."

 _He would. She swore he would. She'd beat him to a pulp… or maybe just kidnap him… forever… it would be the case of the 'cute' wisecracking fox that was never found and too bad for whoever his stupid Foxy Lady because she'd never find him since he'd be locked-_

"But Judy, I'm only telling you what's true!" Nick said melodramatically, "I really do think you and your growl are _oh_ _so_ c-"

" _NNNnnnick…_ " Judy ground out, fuming so much smoke should have been coming from her ears. "You _know_ bunnies don't like when other mammals call us cute, and you are well beyond even _your_ special exception on that! It's demeaning and it means something _entirely_ different for bunnies. And I _**Will**_ , _By Serendipity, I Swear_ , make you _pay_ if you say it again."

"I'm almost tempted to see that actually…" Nick grinned looking at her, his eyes taking on a dangerous, almost feral gleeful glimmer.

Some part of Judy's brain was throwing up warning flags at that look, but her frustrated temper was burning out her mental fuses left and right. Instead stopping to take even a _moment_ to consider what she was doing, she glared back at him, stared right back at the fox smiling at her in what should have been an exceptionally alarmingly toothy fashion to any sane doe.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw his lips curving, like he was preparing to say the forbidden C word, and then something in his eyes shifted, that almost feral edge receding, though there seemed to be plenty of glee left behind.

"Oh right," Nick snapped his fingers as if remembering. "Sorry, almost forgot that word is a bunny hot button."

He said that so earnestly Judy could have _almost_ believe him… if his grin didn't say exactly the _opposite_.

Her glare intensified, but Nick just bit his lip as if to prevent himself from saying anything else, or… maybe, to prevent himself from laughing.

Judy decided to ignore that last option for his own sake.

"It's **not** just a hot button, It's… it's…" _also the bunny equivalent of calling someone sexy you DUMB Fox!_ Even despite being hopping angry mad Judy's face flushed with a massive blush. " _Darn it Nick!_ It's a _**bunny**_ thing!"

She fumed… and blushed.

Nick blinked at her innocently for a second, then guffawed.

" _Ohhhhhh…_ right it's _also_ a bunny ' _hot'_ button!" Nick wiped a tear away from the corner of his eye, "Sorry Judy, I didn't mean to _proposition_ you! I wouldn't!" her heart seemed to suddenly crack painfully, "I _am_ a respectable fox," Nick added putting his paw on his chest, then gave her a wicked smirk. "I'd at the very least want to take you to _dinner_ first!"

 _Annnnnnnd…_ Judy forgot about that painful twinge in her chest as her face spontaneously lit on fire.

Her paw reached out, grabbed a very convenient tie and _yanked_ Nick's face down till that smirk was nose to nose with her. Then in her best growl, (she had had a _very_ good instructor at the Police academy after all) _growled_ , "NOT… FUNNY… _NICK_."

"Right. Right. Sorry Carrots, took that joke a little too far," he said a bit quickly, though his smirk didn't quite disappear. _And_ it might have been her imagination but she could have almost sworn she heard his heart beating at a faster than normal pace as she glared ( _still_ blushing) back at him.

"I really am a respectable fox, Judy," Nick said, giving her a more genuine smile that mollified some of her anger (and yet made her blush that much worse.) "And courting _is_ actually a really big deal for us foxes, even _I'm_ not an exception to that. Courting has to be done _right_." Nick looked down almost shamefacedly and Judy realized he was _blushing_ under his russet fur.

 _HuhzaHe'saWhat?!_ Judy thought, thrown off by that realization.

"So… sorry… for teasing you like that. Really." Nick _apologized_ looking up into her eye and then down again, _his_ blush worsening. "I shouldn't have joked like that, not about asking… well," Judy's jaw dropped in shock at Nick being completely _serious_ for once. Carrot sticks, He'd even managed to keep joking when they were running for their lives from Bellwether!

"It was a bit much and a little tactless of me, especially considering who I lo-" Nick snapped his mouth shut, biting his lip hard while Judy watched in astonishment as a look of conflicted confusion rolled across Nick's face.

He slowly took a step back, his tie sliding through her suddenly numb paws, then not looking at her simply added, "That wasn't right of me, tods don't… not for foxes…"

Some niggling thoughts at the back of Judy's mind were vying for her attention. Something Skye had been telling her, something of foxes… about vulpine courting about tods specifically… or was it vixens? Something important…

Judy tried to think but she felt like a popped balloon, all her frustrated anger whistling away to leave her feeling empty, alone, standing there so close to Nick, yet so far away that even the tip of his tie now hanging loose in her paw was about to slip away too.

"Judy… I, um… is that, um, apology accepted?... Are we good?"

Nick's worried voice snapped her out of her muddled thoughts and her paw fisted over the end of his tie as her head snapped up.

"I-ah, _what_?" she stammered, disoriented for a second. She lost her train of thought amid the sudden rush of concert noise all around them in the darkened stadium that was hammering back down on her awareness.

Nick was looking at her worriedly, and he ran a paw nervously over his ears, looking to the side.

"Um… we're still good right, I ah… wasn't being too-"

"You're a real Dumb Fox!" She blurted out, then hugged _him_ because she desperately needed to feel _some_ contact with Nick, no matter how slight.

"You can irritate the carrot picking _hell_ out of me sometimes, Nick! And you _seriously_ need to cut back on the 'cute' teasing because while I know you mean it all in good fun, you _really_ don't know how that affects me!" She almost growled again and thumped her head against the surprised fox's chest, then glared up at him, _really_ glared up at him. "Dumb Fox! Of course we're still good. No matter what happens Nick I'm always your friend. **Even** when your being a _Dumb_ fox!"

Nick wrapped his arms around her, then lowered his head to press it next to hers as he hugged her back.

"Thanks Judy, you really are too good for me, even if every now and then you can be a bit of a dumb bunny too."

"You're a dumb fox first!" Judy sniffled and squeezed him tight.

"Heh, takes one to know one." Nick chuckled against her neck.

Nick's fur was warm against her cheek, and holding him like she was she could _feel_ his heartbeat; so strong and reassuring that Judy couldn't help the sudden upwelling of emotions. So she shut her eyes tight, because no matter what happened she knew she'd never be able to stop thinking of him as hers.

"Dumb fox or not," she muttered, "you know I'll always love you right?"

Nick's heart beat made an odd thump before his arms closed just a bit tighter around her, his heartbeat now faster than before.

"Judy…" Nick swallowed hard, his voice getting a little hoarse again, "Judy… I love you too." Her own heart seemed to soar for a second but she could feel a building tension in him that scared her too, so she just held tight as he continued.

"I _love_ you, and… Judy, I'm afraid of losing you."

She looked up at him, her worry now confusion, even as she felt a sort of happy yet ever so slightly wanting contentment.

"Why do you think you'd ever lose me?"

"Besides the fact that you're a police officer in the big city and not only a police officer, but the smallest police officer in the history of Zootopian police officers and that something could happen to you _anyday_ at work? _Besides_ that?" Nick asked looking down at her, his eyes showing her an amount of worry that she'd never noticed before, right before he somehow stuffed that worry back down and away.

The intensity of it made her blush, which Judy found slightly odd since that same worry from her parents tended to only irritate her, but then again this was Nick. The mammal who watched her back when they were on the job, the mammal she trusted with her life on a daily basis, the mammal she _knew_ cared deeply for her, _worried_ about her, but despite that didn't ever try to stop her and instead did everything he could to watch her back while he supported her.

"Yes, well, besides that," Judy mumbled looking down, cheeks flaming.

Nick let out resigned huff of air.

"Judy… because… because I've fallen in love with someone and now I'm a complete mess inside," he said, his voice become fast, almost uncontrolled, "I'm afraid that if she really understands just how much I've fallen for her that I'll lose her and I'm absolutely and utterly terrified that this whole misadventure with me falling in love is going to end up with me losing you in the process! You've helped me become who I am, who I want to be, helped me open up. Judy," Nick looked her in the eyes, "I _can't_ lose you, you mean _too_ much to me."

"I- Nick…" Judy stammered flushing, trying to sort out his rushed explanation.

 _He thought she'd object? (well she_ _ **did**_ _, on a personal jealous level, But he didn't know that) but even if she did, he should know better than to think she'd ever trade her friendship with him over a fit of jealousy!_

She felt a bit indignant at that thought, then suddenly depressed, thinking about how he _was_ talking with her now about his feelings for his mysterious crush. But he was still holding her, and she at least for the moment was still holding him. And even if he did truly fall for some stupid vixen, there was a part of her that _knew_ that he really did truly care for her too. Maybe not in the way she wanted, maybe just as his closest friend, but he _did_ love her in his own way. He'd said so, and even more than his words, she believed that because of how he held her.

He _did_ care for her.

Judy thumped her head against Nick's chest giving her own resigned sigh.

She loved him, she might not be able to love him in the way she wanted but she still loved him and because she did there was something she could do for Nick to help him, one thing he needed to know. Though… she'd already told him, the _Dumb_ fox. She'd just have to make him understand it this time.

"Nick, listen to me okay? Really listen to me," Judy said, head still against his chest as her arms squeezed him.

"I'm your best friend, right?" Judy asked and she felt Nick nod. "You know I love you right?"

Nick's chest did its thu-thumping thing against her cheek as his usually steady heart beat spiked for a moment but she felt him nod again.

"Then get it through your head that that's not going to change. Period. Ever. Even if I don't like who ever you want to be with, I'll still be your best friend. I'll still love you. I'll still be your partner at the ZPD. Actually, I'll tell you right now in full honesty I'm probably _not_ going to like whoever you are in love with, because you're too good for them, but even still I'll always, _**Always**_ _,_ be there for you Nick _. Always._ That will never change you big, dumb, fox."

Nick's paw around her tightened, pulling her close again into another hug, something she was finding herself quickly becoming addicted to. She couldn't describe how much she _liked_ the feeling of Nick's large paws holding her to him. How it felt to have his lean, toned chest and that long russet and cream fur pressing against her.

If nothing else, she hoped that their friendship was going to include a lot more hugging.

"Thanks Judy. I- thanks… it helps to know that even if I mess up I won't lose you completely." Nick said after a few moments and started to pull back, but Judy wasn't ready yet so she held tight, stopping him.

"I mean it Nick," she said, looking up at him to make sure he did. "You're not losing me even a little bit. I said I'd become a police officer as a kit and I did, I wanted you to be my partner and you are and I'm telling you right now, that you're stuck with me as your friend and you're just going to have to live with that. And that stupid _dumb_ 'Foxy lady' you're so infatuated with is just going to have to live with that too once you catch her." Judy thumped him in his shoulder like she usually did to make sure he was paying attention as she looked at him. Then drawing strength from his close presence, she continued. "And I'm also sure that if you really do love her, you'll get her in the end, Nick."

Nick was looking back at her with an expression that was almost indescribable, happy, content, hopeful, though still ever so slightly fearful. It made her reluctant to ever let go of him and the way he was smiling...wow, it was the most genuine smile she'd ever seen. A beautiful smile that matched perfectly with his emerald green eyes that seemed both utterly calm and serene as he looked at her.

And as he looked at her, smiling in a way that was making it increasingly hard to breathe, she could see just a touch of wild sparkle behind them.

Then that wild part seemed to flash and Judy practically groaned as a mischievous grin ran up his muzzle.

"I believe _most_ of that, Judy…"

She made a frustrated growling noise, but that just made his grin grow. She thumped her head back against his chest, not being able to look into those vibrant green pools any longer without doing something _incredibly_ stupid… like kissing him.

"Sorry Carrots, I just think that you might actually like her. I told you, She's something truly special. A one of a kind type of mammal."

"I still doubt it," Judy huffed indignantly, not even wanting to think of Nick's crush right then, not when she was trying to hold herself back from jumping up and just kissing the hell out of him. She took in a deep breath as she snuggled her nose deeper into his shirt, no..fur...as somehow all her snuggling against him had loosened one of his buttons. She let out a small contented sigh,, letting the smell of his distinctive musk settle her.

Holding onto him while having him still holding her seemed to be enough for the moment though, and she managed to beat off both the bunny-gone-wilde need to kiss Nick, and the melancholy about thinking of his lady love.

His stupid, _stupid_ lady love…

"And just who _is_ she, Nick?" Judy sighed in a resigned manner.

She didn't even need to see Nick's smirk to know it ratcheted up a few notches because she could _feel_ it.

"Can't tell you," he said with a near gleeful note in his voice like it was some sort of game.

Judy still with her face buried in his chest, glared.

Maybe if she glared hard enough she could _burn_ the answers out of him by pure will power.

Nick shrugged, still grinning.

"I can't, it's not proper," he added. "Sort of a fox-custom kind of thing."

"Seriously Nick?!" Judy vented looking up and then poked his chest. "Skye told me about some of your fox courting customs and she never mentioned _anything_ like that!"

"Really?" Nick said sounding interested. "And did _she_ by any chance happen to tell you who it is? Because I'm a hundred percent sure she knows."

"I- well… no…" Judy said grumpily. "She sidestepped the question when I asked."

Nick snickered.

"See? Fox custom. If you want to know you have to figure it out. _I_ can't tell you, and no other fox will either."

Judy started grinding her teeth

Nick's smirk softened and he raised a paw to the middle of her back, started soothingly rubbing his thumb along the inside of one of her ears where it was hanging down almost absentmindedly. She shuddered and stopped grinding her teeth, but more because she suddenly found herself going limp against Nick.

 _Got- got to…to tell Nick… not to… to pet my ears like that… *groan*… sensitive… intimate spot for… bunnies… *groan*… That's nice…_

"Sorry Fluff, but there's a reason," Nick said softly. "I promise, but it's something you have to figure out for yourself. _I_ can't just come out and tell you who I'm in love with, not directly, it's against the rules."

 _Rules… right… should tell him… petting ears… is against bunny… courtesy rules… after he stops… *groan* though… *mmmmmmmmhhhmm* nice… if I_ _ **don't**_ _tell him… he might do this… again…_

"Um, Judy?"

 _Hey! Why'd he stop?! I didn't tell him to stop!_

"Judy?"

"Huh, wha… um, ya?" Judy blinked, trying to focus and looked up at Nick, who was looking at her with a small but growing little grin.

"You just started making the cu-" he stopped himself and coughed, "I mean you were making a sort of churring sound almost like you were _purr-_ "

"Ehem! That's- I wasn't- My Ears Are _Sensitive_! And _YOU_ got all rumbly when I petted your tail so you have nothing to say!" Judy blurted out feeling mortified.

She hadn't actually been chirring, had she?

 _Oh gods if Nick figures out he can turn me into a puddle by petting my ears-_

Judy shuddered for a second, thinking of her sudden winning streak in the ZPD boxing ring disappearing as she lay helpless on the mat, Nick petting her ears as she struggled to so much as move…

She'd die of embarrassment.

 _Change of subject NOW!_ Judy mind screamed, hoping it wasn't too late to prevent Nick from drawing any conclusions from what had just happened.

What had they been talking about before? Right, Nick's idiot mystery lady.

"Nick, backup. We weren't done with what we were talking about and I still want answers!" Judy snapped, managing to reign in some of her more obvious panic.

Nick was still looking at her with a, 'Now wasn't _that_ interesting?' expression that had her worried. ( _Not in the ZPD Ring, Not in the ZPD Ring, Not…)_ but he didn't start petting her ear again, for which Judy wasn't sure whether she was glad or disappointed about.

"I told you,, Carrots, I can't tell you. It's against the rules."

 _Right, Carrot Blast It, he did say something about that, Stupid Fox Rules!_

"See now that is different, that's clearly a growl, that other sound was softer, much more of a happy sound. I liked _that_ sound," he said looking at her with an almost predatory air.

 _Cabbage Fertilizer!_

"Nick! Focus!" Judy snapped desperately, her cheeks feeling like they were on fire. "Answers! Now!"

"Sorry. Still can't," Nick snickered, then kissed her right between her ears in a teasingly irritating way that made her want to yank out fistfuls of her fur. He tapped her on her back as if to get her attention.

"Don't worry, Carrots, you might figure it out… _someday_."

"Darnit Nick!" Judy fumed. "Fine then! When did you meet her?! Where did you meet her! I've never seen you seriously flirt with any of the vixens we've met! It's not that fox receptionist over at the courthouse is it?! I've seen you chat with her-"

"Calm down Judy," Nick said grinning fully now. "And no its not her, "Nick rolled his eyes. "I already told you she _isn't_ a red fox."

Nick took a breath and seemed to sober a bit.

"That's part of the problem, we're not exactly the same species Judy…" Nick said, looking right at her as if trying to impart just how significant that was. "I- I'm not sure if she's even considered the _possibility_ of me being even a prospective mate because of that."

"Well that's just stupid, Nick," Judy huffed. " _Any_ vixen would consider you a good catch!"

"She'd not exactly your standard vixen…" Nick mumbled looking away.

"And what do you mean by that?!" Judy asked in frustrated.

"Nothing…" Nick sighed. "Just… I just think she's one hell of a Foxy Lady, Judy, that's all…"

"And yet you haven't even made a move on her yet?!" Judy snapped.

"Hey! I've _tried_." Nick said defensively, his ears angling back.

"Then try _harder_!" Judy growled. "Do that whole Mr. Charming thing you did with me dancing! _That's_ **sure** to get her attention if not just bag her outright! Hell Nick," she thumped his chest maybe a bit harder than usually as a bit of jealousy boiled up, "I'm just a bunny and _I'd_ have gone home with you after something like that if you'd asked!" she nearly shouted, blushing just a tad. She reminded herself that he didn't need to know just how true that statement was.

Nick didn't respond though, and she stopped glaring at his ruff to look up, and to her startlement found that Nick was _blushing_ , and not just a little either. She'd never even imagined he could blush like that.

Her mouth gaped open for a second as Nick almost caught her eye before hurriedly glancing away with an expression of pure embarrassment. He looked almost as embarrassed as he had outside the love tunnel with her little disaster of an episode there.

"Nick?"

Worry shot through her as she thought he might clam up like he had then with when the crowd had started laughing.

"You don't- You're not, um, nervous about... well, trying… are you?"

There was a short almost panicked laugh, and Nicked turned, blush still making his cheeks look fire engine red as he muttered, while not quite looking at her.

"You have _no_ idea how nervous I usually am Judy… I just usually do a better job of hiding it. That's the first trick any hustler learns."

"Then hide the fact that your nervous when you try, Nick," Judy said, putting a paw on his chest reassuringly. "Just make sure you _keep_ trying."

That got another short, half panicked laugh. "Just like your favorite Gazelle song eh, Judy? Just keep trying till you succeed? You know, if she was singing that song right now I'd have thought you'd have planned out that little pep talk!" Nick said looking over at the stage as if to double check Gazelle _wasn't_ singing 'Try Everything'.

Which she was not. She was finishing up the song 'She wolves'.

"Nick, come on. I'm being serious," Judy replied, also hoping _that_ song didn't get him thinking back on their earlier discussion. Though Judy couldn't help thinking with a smug, if slightly depressed thought, that Mrs. Wolford had been wrong.

Nick _did_ love her… just not in _that_ way apparently… not like he was with his crush on his Foxy Lady. That old wolf just had just seen the one and confused it for the other.

Carrots and Cabbages, he _must_ have it bad for her if that girl could make **Nick** **Wilde** _that_ nervous.

"Right… Right… Sorry fluff…" Nick muttered, and gave her a quick squeeze. "Sorry, it's just, I can't help but worry, Judy." He sighed and leaned his head on hers again. "Why don't we just take a break, Carrots, and enjoy the rest of the concert?"

Judy let out an exasperated huff and poked the underside of his muzzle, making him squirm.

"You know I'm not going to let this go now. I'm _going_ to find out who she is and when I do I'm going to have a talk with her too!" Judy said warningly as Nick squirmed and her pokes finally got him to lift his muzzle of her head with a sheepish smile.

"You don't give up easily do you?" Nick said, starting to put his head back on hers when she booped him on the nose, stopping him.

"No. No, I do not!" she added proudly.

Nick gave her an amused, almost admiring look, then snorted good naturedly.

"Well, you're going to have to tell me what you say to her the next time you see her…" Nick mumbled with a half smirk. "I'd like to be a fly on the wall for _that_ conversation."

"Ah HA!" Judy shouted. "So I _do_ know this _**vixen**_!"

Nick looked to the side muttering, "Foxy Lady… _Foxy_ lady," in a disgruntledly manner as if he was pouting that she'd caught that slip up. But she had a clue now, and she knew she was on the right track because she could feel Nick's paw nervously tapping on her back as he spoke.

"It doesn't matter what you like to call her, Nick. The fact that I know her makes finding out who she is all that much easier," Judy said, grinning evilly.

"Judy, I could describe her every detail and you still wouldn't know who she is," Nick said with an amused and almost disdainful sniff. "Maid Marian save me, Carrots, She could be standing right _here_ ," He pointed his claw down right between them, "and you still wouldn't be able to figure it out."

"Oh _really_?" Judy said patronizingly, arching an eyebrow, then gave him her own disdainful sniff. "Fine, challenge accepted. What are you wagering?"

"Wait, what?" Nick said, startled.

"What are you wagering?" Judy asked with a malicious grin. "You said you could describe every detail of her and I still wouldn't be able to guess who she is before the concert is over. Fine. I'll take that challenge. I already know what I want anyway…"

"That was not a challenge!" Nick spluttered.

"Oh yes it was!" Judy said with saccharin sweetness while Nick pursed his lips as if trying to think of a way out of it before finally muttering.

" _Fineeee._ What do you want?"

"Oh… nothing much, just a little private performance," Judy grinned before humming a familiar tune.

" _~Hey hey, Mister Fox, what are you doing-~"_

Nick's jaw dropped and his eyes widened to the size of elephant sized saucers. It was all Judy could do not to laugh, which was probably a good thing because he snapped his muzzle shut, narrowing his eyes at her and every danger alarm she had went off at once.

"Well if that's your wager, I'll need something of equal worth," Nick said and started tapping his chin, his tail even starting to wag in a thoughtful and somewhat devious manner. Then Nick looked down, grinned and grabbed the tip of his tail examining it for a second with a critical eye.

"Right, well then," he said, looking at Judy in a manner that made her gulp. "I am overdue to get my fur taken care of soo…" Nick drawled out while Judy squinted at his tail, which to her eyes looked pristine. "If I win, _you_ have to take me out for a full spa day..." Judy let out a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding. That wasn't so bad, might be a bit pricey but that wouldn't be bad at-

"At the Mystic Springs Oasis." Nick finished smugly, and Judy stiffened in alarm, her ears shooting up and her tail almost flying off.

 _Her and Nick… a whole day… at the Mystic spring Oasis… in the fur… or how would Jessica put it?_

' _ **Nekked'**_

 _Granted_ _seeing Nick in the buff would be a treat, IF she didn't_ _ **die**_ _from embarrassment herself!_

"Hold on there a sec Nick!" Judy repeated, her turn to stammer now.

"Nope," Nick cut her off, dropping his tail, and looking supremely pleased with himself. "A bets a bet. You started this, _deal_ with it Fluff."

"Fine," Judy ground out. "I was planning on winning anyway, now start talking, Slick. I want details."

Nick took a half step back from her, eying her up and down, almost like he wasn't sure she'd keep her side of the bet… or he might just be stalling. Judy crossed her arms and her foot started thumping the ground.

Nick raised his own eyebrow at her thumping foot then shrugged and looked around as if checking for evesdroppers before scooting close to her.

"You promise you won't tell her any of this if you do figure out who she is?" he whispered into her ear.

Interest peaked, Judy nodded.

Nick sighed and placed his arms and tail around her, beginning to dance slowly before taking one last careful look around.

"Nick, nobody else is listening, now…what type of fox? How tall is she? What's her dimensions? Any identifying marks? Fur color?" Judy startled listing traits off, though she did put her paws around his waist and if they ended up resting right over the base of his tail… well hey, that was just a coincidence right? Them was the breaks of him being taller than her.

"This isn't a criminal investigation, Judy." Nick snickered as she ran though the basic suspect identification questions exactly as they were listed in the ZPD handbook.

"I'll be the judge of that, _now Spill!_ " Judy commanded.

Nick took one last breath and looked right at her before looking up distantly and _finally_ starting to talk.

"Let's see…The first thing that stands out is probably her eyes. Judy, she has the most _beautiful_ eyes. Eyes the color of flawless amethysts, eyes that are always filled with emotion, and that are determined yet soft, eyes that-"

"Right. I get it Nick," Judy said, trying not to audibly grind her molars at the puppy love wonder that filled Nick's voice. "What shade of color exactly? Are we talking deep violet, or light purple or something close to light pink or an almost bluish hue?

Nick huffed irritably at her interruption looking back down at her crossly, his paws flexing momentarily on her back as they still danced slowly.

"Well since you 'get it' I don't think I need to tell you anymore about her eyes," Nick sniffed.

Judy tried to restrain herself and mostly succeeded. She didn't growl at least… though judging how Nick shifted suddenly… she might have squeezed his tail…

"Um… right, how about I just keep telling you about her…" Nick said quickly, taking a small step away from her temperamental paws, which actually placed him almost right up against her… so Judy let it go.

"She's also got lovely fur, softer than any fox's I've ever meet. Almost snow white belly fur with a gray coat that-

"She's a Grey Fox?!" Judy blurted out, mentally knocking out the majority of the candidates on her list of possibilities. There weren't that many grey foxes around.

"Are you going to continuously interrupt me?" Nick asked, lips tight as he looked at her crossly.

"If it gets me my answer more quickly," Judy shrugged, "Now what kind of gray?"

Nick pursed his lips for a few moments before finally saying,

"Gray."

Judy rolled her eyes.

"What like everyday gray?"

This time Nick shrugged his shoulders.

"It's a normal common gray. _I_ still think she makes that common grey look extraordinary."

"Righhhhhht," Judy said, rolling the word to express her disbelief. "So she's got a _common_ grey coloring."

That for some reason seemed to prick Nick's pride… or she guessed his protective instinct, which irritated her more because if he felt _protective_ of her… well he was crushing _bad_.

"Hey, _color_ isn't everything!" Nick said bristling.

"Says the fox that's excessively proud of his russet fur," Judy countered, though… she had to agree that the russet coloring on him with its varying shades of red from almost orange to deeper tones of almost maroon brown _did_ look spectacular on him. That and he _did_ know how to groom himself to show off his fur to its best (and it was _very_ good) effect.

"It's not what you have, it's how you use it," Nick said haughtily, sticking his nose in the air, and using that distraction, swished his tail up to swat her nose unexpectedly.

Judy jumped a little in surprise and Nick grinned.

She gave him the stink eye.

"Right, _Common_ ," she stressed the word just to rub Nick the wrong way. "Grey fox, go on."

"No." Nick shook his head, still sounding indignantly haughty. "Very uncommonly pretty, common grey Foxy Lady."

Judy rolled her eyes.

"I'm not kidding Judy," Nick said with a straight face. "I don't think she pays much, _if_ _any_ , attention to her fur, which is a real shame in my opinion," he shrugged. "Yet it still looks amazing. Part of it is her natural looks. 'Common' grey it might be, but her fur's shading is beautiful and that is without _any_ fur treatment what-so-ever. She actually doesn't understand just how good her fur looks, 'common' grey or not. But the other part is just how she carries herself-"

"Right, I've seen how vixens carry themselves," Judy said giving another eye roll… and trying not to be jealous. "You don't need to describe how 'sexy' it is to me," she added mockingly, and hopefully not enviously.

Nick snickered, and her face heated thinking he was snickering at her at first,

"No, actually that's also a wrong assumption," he said with another apparent snicker at his apparent crush, which confused her until-

"Wait- ' _ **Also**_ a wrong assumption?!' " Judy blurted out. What other 'assumption' had she gotten wrong?! She wasn't making any assumptions! She was trying to get facts here!

Nick waved a paw dismissively.

"Doesn't matter, but for your information, No, she actually doesn't carry herself quite like the standard vixen. Oh she's got the agility and such, and the confidence to shame ten vixens, but my Foxy lady is a bit too um… enthusiastic? Hummm… Spontaneous? Mmmmhhhh…." Nick seemed to be deliberately taking his time trying to think of the right word. And judging by the sly almost smirk on his face he was doing it on purpose. It made her foot want to thump a hole through the floor, but every time her foot started to twitch in the first signs of a bunny thump, Nick moved, pulling her along in their slow dance. Judy bit the inside of her lip, determined not to give him any satisfaction in how much that was irritating her.

Nick's grin finally broke out over his face as he continued. "Maybe 'impatient' is a better description. Point is, she doesn't quite have the slow grace or smooth sexy appeal most vixens try for. If anything I think it makes her look cute, wait!" Nick looked at her alarmed, speaking quickly "I'm talking about my Foxy lady, so you can't get upset about that word right?"

"Doesn't matter to me," Judy replied, a bit amused at Nick's reaction to the dreaded C-word.

A _huge_ smile broke over Nick's face and she heard his tail start wagging audibly behind him.

"Well then I have to say that I have _never_ seen a girl as cute as her, I mean like super duper opilishous cute. Like world's _cutest_ Hall of Fame Cute. I mean Judy, she is _**seriously,**_ unbelievably _**CUTE.**_ Utterly. Absolutely. Insanely **CUTE**. Cuter than Cute shoud be CUTE. The Cutesiest cute that ever cute could be kind of cute!

"You got that out of your system yet Nick?" Judy yawned as he gushed.

" **No**!" he glared before his huge smile broke back out and his tail doubled its speed.

"Cute! Cute! Cute! Judy. She. _**Is**_ **.** _ **So.**_ **CUTE.** Like how cute could a cute-chuck be if a cute-chuck could chuck cute, kind of cute!"

Judy let out an amused snort at her enthused fox.

"Pretty sure the answer to that would be as much cute as a 'cute-chuck' could chuck if a 'cute-chuck' could chuck cute." Judy replied.

"YESSS! _Now_ you're starting to understand!" Nick hugged her enthusiastically. Which Judy enjoyed shamelessly before muttering teasingly.

"I thought this girl was a vixen not a 'cute woodchuck'."

"Of course she's not a woodchuck!" Nick sniffed derisively, pulling back just enough to plant his nose against hers and stare at her as if to burn the point into her head.

"Judy. She. Is. A. Foxy. Lady!" he said slowly, then chortled in amusement. " _Not_ a woodchuck." His stupidly almost puppy-ishly gleeful grin broke out as he laughed.

"A _Cuuuuutee Foxy Lady._ The cutest one that ever was! Cutest Cute mammal ever! Cute CUTE _CUTE_ cute Cute Cuuuute! _Cute_ cute *whispered* _cute_ , **CUTE,** Cute cute _Cute Cute CUTE_ _ **CUTE**_ … **C. U. T. E… cute** CuTe cUtE _**cute**_ _cute Cute CUTE_ CUTE-"

Nick took in a long breath of air.

"CooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" He howled, squeezing Judy against him while spinning in a circle enthusiastically.

He had to take another breath after the howl while Judy tried to recover her own a bit of blush-induced short breath, though she tried to be a bit less obvious than Nick's gasp.

"Well… that was…"

"Not done!" Nick interrupted her, putting a finger over her mouth to silence her.

"Cute. CUTE. CUTE! _CUTE!_ _ **CUTE!...**_ " Nick grabbed one last breath and practically sighed, " _Cute_ …"

Judy waited a moment, watching him as he took a few breaths and straightened his tie before giving her an ever so slightly chagrinned smile.

"Now I'm done."

"Wow," Judy snickered. "Been holding that in long?"

"You have _noooo_ idea how much I've wanted to do that," Nick said sounding about as pleased as a cat that stole a seat in the sun.

"You do realize that if your 'Foxy Lady' ever heard you say that she'd probably kill you. I mean even for a non-bunny that was _ridiculous_ ," Judy said, still amused over Nick's playful eccentricity.

"Oh ya," Nick grinned at her nodding his head. "I seriously doubt she'd take that all too well, which," he tapped her nose, "is why I made you promise to never _ever_ tell her any of what we are discussing."

"Sure, Nick," Judy chuckled. "I'll keep your dirty 'cute' little secret."

"Thanks Judy." Nick, tail still wagging, leaned down and dazed her with a kiss to her cheek. "I really appreciate that."

"I… ah… no problem… N-Nick… any… any… time…" Judy mumbled as Nick put his paws back around her and pulled her back into the slow dance they'd been moving at before, though with a bit more enthusiasm than he had previously.

He even hummed along to the concert music though he seemed to add some suspicious 'c' sounding words into it.

"Well," Judy said after a few moments to recover, "That was… something… I just never really imagined you for the kind of guy that would like clumsily cute over elegantly sexy."

"She's _not_ clumsy," Nick said with a shake of his head, then looked at her pointedly raising both eyebrows.

"And I'd think a bunny like you would understand that 'cute' does not exclude 'sexy'." He tapped her nose. "And don't even get me started on the issue of her not exactly fitting the traditional vulpine view of 'elegantly sexy'. I'd need a dictionary and a white board to explain it so let's just leave it at, _I_ think she'd very elegantly sexy."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it."

"You should," Nick said nodded his head knowingly. "Because I'm right."

Judy let out a snort then reviewed her list of possible suspects.

There were only three grey foxes she could think of, though none seemed like a real match… Then again Nick was probably looking at this girl though love-goggles so who knew how much of his description was imagined perfection.

"Is this girl the café's second shift barista?" Judy asked. "The _curvy_ girl with the _long_ tail."

"The one that makes putting whip cream on a drink look like one big innuendo just to see how many guys' jaws she can drop?!" Nick belly laughed, leaning hard on Judy for support.

"Oh _Karma_ No, Carrots!" he continued to chortle. "Knock me out and save me from that fate if I ever start looking at her!"

"But…"

"No, Judy she's not the one," Nick said, grinning as he got his chuckles under control. "First, my girl has a bit of a short tail for a foxy lady, though it is very _very nice_ tail. I could go into the details about it but, again, I'd need a white board and I feel like any mammal of the female denomination might slap me for excessive maleness after that lecture." Nick snickered. "Oh and also, while the girl I like is nicely curved in a few spots, _like the view when you look at her tail…"_ Nick muttered under his breath with a cough that she suspected he _hadn't_ meant her to hear, given how he blushed when she looked at him pointedly.

"Ehem," Nick coughed into his paw again looking away. "What I meant to say is that while the girl I like has some very feminine curves, she's far more toned and sleek than _that_ fox." Nick looked back with a sheepish grin as if testing the water after his previous muttered comment and then continued.

"I really did mean what I said earlier, Judy. During that song? I prefer 'humble' over 'mountainous'."

"Well…" Judy muttered, now the one looking away as she tried to forestall a blush at from that memory, "What about the new attorney we saw at the courthouse?"

"No- _p_ e." Nick popped the p in the reply. "One, her fur is actually black, she uses fur dye to tone it down," Nick tapped his nose. "Could smell it on her from the day before we saw her last time. Two, she has earrings. I already told you the girl I like doesn't bother messing with her fur, which actually works out great for her since she has great natural complexion, but she also doesn't have any piercings in her ears." Nick snickered. " _Trust me_ , I would have noticed. Not to mention her ears are longer than either of the two ladies you've mentioned, which I must admit, I find oddly fascinating. Her ears are _very_ expressive, I rather like them a lot…" Nick seemed to trail off in his own wandering thoughts, staring off into space above her head as Judy thought hard.

She only had one last guess and she had a gut feeling it wasn't her. Just the way Nick and her had interacted seemed completely off for Nick's crush.

"What about that petite little fox that works over in the mayor's office as a secretary."

Nick snorted again. "She wears glasses and has the wrong eye color, Judy." He flicked one of her ears chastising. "You need to work on your observation skills. Plus the girl I like, while she _is_ petite, she's also quite strong, I mean surprisingly so. I'd be a little afraid getting in the ring with her if she were in a bad mood," Nick snickered, which left Judy flummoxed.

"You said I know this girl!" Judy said challengingly, pretty sure he'd fibbed on some detail because she was getting zero matches for anyone close to his description.

"You do," Nick responded with an amused snort.

"No, I don't, _Nick_ ," Judy said eyeing him questioningly. "A gray furred vixen-"

"Foxy Lady," Nick said holding up a finger like a professor correcting a student. "There's a difference."

"Fine...a grey furred _foxy Lady_ ," Judy growled, "with amethyst eyes, long ears, short tail, petite frame, stronger than she looks, etc. etc. It sounds like you fell for a dyed feminized Finnick! What does he have, a _sister_ or something I don't know about!"

" _Gahhhh_! **Ewwwwww!** " Nick cringed badly, his tongue poking out as his muzzle as he all but gagged. "Female version of Finnick?! Judy, you're going to give me nightmares. Did you even listen to me at all?!"

"Well that's at least a little reassuring Nick, because I had images of you dating some female fennec bodybuilder who carries a bat around and had Fin's face. Now I can safely scrub that out of my mind." Judy rubbed her temple with one paw as she squinted, then looked up at Nick.

"But that still doesn't add up to anyone I've ever met, Nick," she said, pointing her paw accusingly at the fox she was dancing with.

"Sure does from _my_ perspective," Nick retorted nonchalantly, then added with a wicked grin. "But I think that means I won and you have to pay for a spa day at the Oasis." Judy's felt a stab of alarm shoot through her as Nick's grin grew.

"NO, You cheated!" she accused, half panicked.

"Did not!" Nick said sounding affronted, then raised his paw in a ranger scout salute.

"Scouts Honor! I meant every word and all of it was true!"

Judy pulled her arms from around Nick and crossed them, his one arm around her back the only thing keeping her in motion doing their slow, barely moving dance together.

"Then point out _one_ time, just _once_ , that I've actually meet her!"

Nick's jaw opened as if he had a response ready, his free paw already raising to make some gesture when he stopped, a conflicted look coming across his face.

"Ha! I knew I've never meet any girl like that Nick!" Judy said triumphantly and a wee bit hurt too. Though there was a good amount of relief too, a day naked with Nick… in a public place? She didn't really like the idea of the latter even if every one else was 'nekked' too, but the part she could stand about that scenario was that it would involve a very ' _NEKKED'_ Fox whom she seriously doubted she'd be able to prevent herself from ogling… or drooling over… or having any number of other mortifying bodily response to seeing. Sheesh...and Nick worried about _him_ being the one to screw up their friendship?! Well she'd at least avoided that.

"Last spring. The night you and the rest of the crew took me to the bar to celebrate my first month at Precinct One," Nick said flatly, not looking at her. "You met her that night… among other times…"

Judy's upright indignant ears flopped down like two dead fish.

She'd didn't have all that much drinking experience and the bars mugs were a bit large. To say that she'd gotten drunk was putting it nicely. She couldn't remember most of that night. Except that it involved a lot of giggling… and a traffic cone? and she thought Nick might have put his jacket around when he'd walked her home… or had he carried her?

"I… I met her _that_ night?!" Judy squeaked.

"Yes." Nick said evenly, "She maybe had a bit to much and was a little more forward than I'd expected," Nick said, his voice even but a telltale blush running up the inside of his ears. "It's um… I think the alcohol made her a bit, um… cuddly… That's something that ah… really catches a guy's attention, when an attractive girl cuddles up against you…" Nick's blush grew worse and he mumbled, "Ask Ralph if you want to confirm it."

Judy thought hard for a moment, but despite all her efforts, could not bring up _any_ memory of a gray vixen at that bar. She couldn't bring up any memory of that night where Nick was further than an arms reach from her either. Any memory of Nick talking to anyone outside of their group of police officers in fact!

Though, there was a lot she just flat out _didn't_ remember too.

There was a few moments of silence, where even the crowds cheering died down as gazelle finished singing 'She Wolves' and started preparing for the next song.

Then Judy very grumpily muttered into the quiet spell.

"Well…. _Shit_."

Nick's jaw dropped.

"What?" Judy muttered her cheeks starting to burn as Nick gaped at her. "It's not like I don't know any, um, real curse words…" Judy mumbled her cheeks now feeling like they were on fire.

" _Pickle my Carrots_ , I never thought I'd hear something like that from _you_." Nick said a slow grin reforming. "I might just have to retract my use of the c-word." He raised up a paw, fingers just I tiny bit apart. "Just a little mind you."

"Oh stuff it Nick," Judy pouted, then slumped against him before muttering. "I'm going to have to go and update my will now…"

"And why's that?" Nick asked looking at her curiously. "Do bunnys that use bad words turn into Carrots at midnight or something?" He teased her.

"No!" Judy said sulkily. "It's just that when I have to pay up for losing I'm going to die of embarrassment!" Her ears were already heating just thinking about it

 _Seeing Nick Nekked!_ Something in Judy giggled girlishly,

 _Him seeing her see Him Nekked!_ Something else in her squealed in embarrassed terror.

 _Nick lounging around in the fur, relaxed and happy and smirking at her._

Judy grabbed her now burning ears and pulled them over her eyes and _groaned_.

"Carrots…" Nick said his voice losing its teasing tone and with one paw, he tilted her head up and brushed her ears to the side so she was looking at him.

"You know you don't have anything to be embarrassed about, right?" he said, his paw rested lightly on her cheek as he looked over her face. As if trying to pinpoint what was the cause of her worry. "Nobody would make fun of you there. You don't need to be embarrassed, you're a very beautiful bunny after all.

She was wrong, she wasn't going to die from embarrassment at the Oasis, she was going to die of embarrassment _right_ _now_.

She felt like she'd been dunked in boiling oil, like she was melting from the inside out.

His soft touch, his earnest words…

Judy's eyes started to water as she looked into his eyes. As he looked at her with all that care.

"Nick…" her paws gripped his shirt and she thumped her head against his chest.

Then thumped it a few more times.

"You are such a _dumb_ fox Nick! You can't just go saying things like that! And that's not even the problem!"

"Well it's true," Nick replied, sounding a bit startled at her reaction. His paw slipped from her cheek and went around her, holding her comfortably.

"But if that's not the issue, than what is?" he asked curiously, his muzzle dipping down to her ear. "Are you just embarrassed you lost another bet to me?" he teased playfully.

Judy couldn't stop an amused snort of air from escaping, then thumped him muttering. "Sometimes I _hate_ you."

"Nhaaa, You just hate when I'm right and you're wrong," Nick said, the concern in his posture now completely gone and leaving her normal playful fox.

His nose nudged her ear and he whispered almost too low for her to hear.

"You known you love me."

Judy sniffled, her paw fisting hard hard enough in the cloth of his shirt that it was sure to leave wrinkles. Trying to pull herself together, she glared up at the fox smiling above her.

"You're right, I do hate it when you're right and I'm wrong."

Then she let go of his shirt and reached up with both paws to cup his face and pulled it down. Then kissed the side of his muzzle and watched with no little satisfaction as Nick got the funniest look. All surprised and wide eyed and confused at her sudden move.

"And I do love you. _Dumb_ fox," she added, now grinning just a bit as Nick tried and failed to speak, his jaw opening and closing a little.

Nick raised his paw up and touched his cheek for a moment before looking back at her, still with that funny, blindsided look on his face.

"W-What was that for?" he barely managed to ask.

"That was a thank you," Judy said just a bit demurely, though she was grinning, enjoying Nick's reaction. "For saying I was beautiful."

"And I don't get 'thank you's for telling you you're cute?" Nick asked, still sounding a bit bushwhacked… and confused… and maybe even slightly disappointed.

She decided that utterance of the 'c word' could go without remark, though her ears pinked a bit.

"Well, _theoretically_ … if I was dating a bunny and _he_ said it to me, he might just get a kiss too," Judy said just a bit coyly.

Nick's face made a whole slew of funny expression at that. A sort of confused slightly disappointed miffed 'Wait, what- _Huh_?' expression that got even funnier as she stood on her tip toes and kissed the side of his muzzle again.

"But there, that's a thank you just in case you've even said that in a non-teasing way. Happy?" Judy said lowering back down with a giggle.

Nick made a sort of a 'Nobody's-home-at-the-second-check-back-later' kind of nod and Judy giggled again as the stage lights went out, only for a spot light to come back on as the next song started.

 _~I can see what's happening,~_

 _ **~What?!~**_

 _~And they don't have a clue!~_

 _ **~Who?!~**_

Judy feeling oddly content at the second, looking up at the still stunned fox just standing there with his arms around her.

"Hey Nick, since you're being so nice and not teasing me at the second, could I have this dance with you?" She asked, smiling with just the smallest grin.

Nick's ears snapped up like two little tents.

"Huh. Um. Yes, yes, of course…" Nick stammered a bit before shaking his head as if clearing it, then gave her an over dramatically suave grin. "How could I possibly refuse such a request from such a lovely lady?"

"That one was a little overdone, Slick," Judy replied with a roll of her eyes, though she smiled as Nick started moving, his previously loose paws on her back now guiding her as they started dancing in place.

"You just don't recognize compliments when you hear them Fluff." Nick said, letting out a small playful huff that had Judy giggling again as the music continued.

 _~They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line,~_

 _~Our trio's down to two.~_

 _ **~Oh.~**_

She looked up at the stage as the singer at the piano waved up at the screens flanking the stage. "No, don't you see?" he said and the screens shifted their views to start showing couples in the crowd.

 _~The sweet caress of twilight,~_

 _~There's magic everywhere.~_

 _~And with all this romantic atmosphere…~_

 _~Disaster's in the air!~_

Judy was just starting to lean into Nick and close her eyes to enjoy the slow dance when she saw who appeared and the screen and _snarked_ into Nick's shoulder.

"Oh My Goodness! Nick! Look!" She squeaked out in a furious giggle as the female buffalo hooked her horn into the very recognizable, wide eyed, slack jawed male buffalo's horns as he stared off toward the screen, and yanked him down into a back bending kiss.

"Way to go Chief!" Nick hooted, then muffled his snickering muzzle in Judy's fur.

"Hey! No being mean, Nick" Judy chastised, playfully swatting him, and turning up her nose. " _I_ , think the they're very cute!"

"Right the chief… 'cute' " Nick snickered and she swatted him again, though she was grinning.

"Still," Nick said, pulling his snickering muzzle out of her neck and smiling at her. "Not as cute as you."

"I-" Judy blushed badly and swatted Nick a third time. " _Niiiick!_ "

"What, I can't give the girl that asked me to dance with her a compliment?" he grinned.

"Do you give _all_ the girls compliments like that?" Judy muttered looking away.

"Depends on how pretty they are," Nick replied easily, and Judy, blushing fit to burst now, gave up the back and forth as a lost cause and leaned into Nick, muttering to herself about too slick, too dumb foxes as Gazelle came into the stages spot light singing.

 _~Can you feel the love tonight?~_

 _~The peace the evening brings~_

 _~The world, for once, in perfect harmony~_

 _~With all its living things~_

Judy sighed, rocking slowly as she danced with her infuriating fox. Feeling utterly content and happy being held by that snarky dumb fox. The only thing she thought that could possible make things better in that moment was if he loved her just a bit more than he did as a friend.

 _~So many things to tell her~_ (The elk pianist took over singing.)

 _~But how to make her see~_

 _~The truth about my past" Impossible?!~_

 _~She'd turn away from me!~_

Nick's arms around her squeezed almost reflexively, just for a tiny moment, pulling her closer. She bumped up fully against him, up against his toned chest and solid stomach and… Judy's eyes snapped open against that chest, her mind flashing back to thoughts about Nick's secret Foxy Lady while his body stiffened slightly in alarm before shifting just a tad so she wasn't pressed _that_ firmly up against him.

 _~He's holding back, he's hiding~_ (Gazelle was singing now.)

 _~But what, I can't decide~_

 _~Why won't he be the king I know he is~_

 _~The king I see inside?~_

Nick, ever so cautiously, looked down at her. Then away as the inside of his ears darkened ever so slightly.

 _Right, like that isn't confusing! I think it's time we clear this up._ Judy thought, her scowl hardening, _he managed to weasel out of answering before when I was trying to be sly, so lets try blunt._

"Hey Nick…"

Nick looked down at her and smiled, though it was a controlled smile.

"Ya Carrots? What's-"

"Did you just ' _bump_ ' me?" Judy interrupted him, making an impossible to misunderstand glance downward before watching him closely.

Nick practically choked on what he'd been saying, a panicked expression breaking through his controlled smile.

"I- ah, _nooo!_ " Nick blurted out sounding quite guilty.

Nick took one look at her disbelieving face, and changed his story.

"Um, maybe, _unintentionally_? I mean Judy- cut me some slack! I'm a tod, it's winter, I'm having getting a girlfriend issues, it happens!" Judy just watched him as he gestured with a frantic nervousness. She maintained her neutral police officer stare. He looked at her again and changed tack.

"And you know Judy, Flash was telling me about this conspiracy where all the coffee shops put something in the drinks around valentines day to, ehem, 'boost' spirits and sales of valentine gifts and I think he might be right!" Nick ending in a conspiratorial whisper that would normally be sure to get her arguing with him, all the while looking around like their might be mammals tailing them.

"Denial, change of story, distraction," Judy listed, off looking at Nick who grimaced, his ears snapping flat in alarm. "You know that's pretty much a textbook response for someone trying to hide something Nick."

"Oh My _Gosh!_ " Nick said with a dramatic gasp pointing over her shoulder. "Judy look at Nadine and Ralph! I can't believe they are, I mean wow, _In Public_! And they have them on the screens too!"

" _Nick_ ," Judy said with a little bit of exasperation, "You're not going to distract me away from figuring out what your hiding, now why-"

"Judy, _seriously_ , I mean just _Wow…_ "

Judy sighed, then looked over at Nadine and Ralph where they were standing near them… and _blushed_ , her jaw dropping a little as she stared at the two.

Ralph was on his toes, rubbing his muzzle along Nadine's small ears as she in turn rubbed at his neck marking him

 _~Can you feel the love tonight?~_

 _~You needn't look too far~_

Nadine reached down and brought up Ralph's paws and rubbed them one at a time along her cheek.

 _~Stealing through the night's uncertainties~_

 _~Love is where they are~_

Ralph then took her paws, rubbing his cheek along the back of each before standing up again and rubbing his muzzle along hers in a long caress.

"They're… They're actually claiming each other… in _public_..." Judy murmured, momentarily successfully distracted, the sight of her two friends declaring each other each other as life mates sending a slew of happy joyous feelings through her. Though... there was also a twinge of painful want at seeing what they had together, what they were committing to.

"Wow, Ralph is _never_ going to live _this_ down," Nick snickered, though he wasn't looking in Ralph and Nadine's direction. Judy, still a bit shocked at seeing the intimate moment for her friends, turned to see what Nick was looking at and her slack jaw turned into a full gap as she saw that one of the cameras viewing the crowd was showing a full view of the tiger and wolf as they marked each other.

Judy snapped her head back and forth between her friends just a few steps away from them and then back to the screen where their affectionate display was being broadcast live.

"Nick! Should we warn them, I mean, I don't think Nadine-"

"Shhhh!" Nick took one paw off her back and pressed a finger to her mouth shushing her before quickly looking over at the two and back at her.

"Do you want Nadine to go on a _real_ rampage?! They're in their own little world right now, just leave them be for the moment."

"Oh… right…" Judy mumbled softly taking a look back and forth between her friends and the screen again… only then noticing the other couple caught in the corner of the cameras view as it focused on the tiger and wolf.

The other couple with the bunny snapping her head back and forth between the newly mated pair and the stage.

The bunny being held by a fox who's tail had slyly wrapped around her again…

The bunny with her back toward the camera…

The _bunny_ with a bright pink heart shaped sticker on her back…

Everything around Judy seemed to slow until each beat of her suddenly spiking heart rate seemed to almost _stop_ as she stared at the large video screen, her vision seeming to tunnel in on the corner. Tunnel in on that sticker on the back of the bunny's shirt right above where Nick's paw was resting.

Everything seemed to lurch.

A hundred...a _thousand_ little memories of Nick smiling at her, of teasing her, of ruffling her fur seemed to shift, like she was seeing them in a new light.

All the small little niggling questions and inconsistencies that had been buzzing around in the back of her mind seemed to snap into place all at the same time.

Nick not only accepting her more gregarious bunny attitude toward friendship, with all her hugs and close contact, but starting to respond in kind.

Nick _always_ accepting any chance to hang out or do something with her.

His slightly rumpled state and odd behavior as winter rolled around.

How he seemed to always want to be near her, was calmer, less frazzled around her. How he got edgy interacting with other males, other _single_ males, around her.

Sasha pulling her aside and giving her a nervous explanation about how winter affected predators while not so subtly hinting at Nick.

Nick bristling at Clawhauser's offer to go with her today as her, 'fake boyfriend'.

His barely contained fury at Leaps in the coffee shop this morning.

Murmuring, ' _My_ bunny saved me again," after he woke up from being tased.

His expression looking at the sticker phrases Clawhauser had picked for their passes.

His evasive, worried, answers when she'd first asked about his love interest. The small slightly hopeful smile he'd had when she'd told him that if he really loved her not to give up.

The probing questions about _her_ love interest, his odd intensity listening to her response.

The teasing kiss to her nose at the go karts

His mortified embarrassment outside the Love boat ride.

Oh Serendipity, the Love boat ride…

The way he'd reacted to her petting his tail, him saying he was fine with _her_ petting his tail, his tail that he was _utterly_ obsessively proud and protective of. Nick's reaction to her panicking, smothering her protectively till she'd calmed. Nick's teasing game of 'you know you love me?' The way he'd smile and say 'Judy, You know I love you right?'

Judy's felt like her head was swimming.

How many times had he looked at her and told her that? How many times had he said he loved a 'Foxy Lady'. _Not_ a vixen, A _Foxy_ Lady. A petite gray furred foxy lady with long ears and a short tail.

It was _**so**_ blindingly obvious in retrospect.

Mrs. Wolford's dead surety she could get her together with Nick over some 'vixen'.

Nadine telling her to stop assuming.

Skye telling her to simply watch to see who Nick spent all his time around, who he would touch or let touch him without reservation.

She'd been so focused on finding someone else, cataloging every female, and more specifically every _vixen_ , she'd ever seen Nick with, that she'd never considered that a _full_ accounting **included** _her_.

And all that time she'd been wishing that Nick would have take an interest in her beyond that of their friendship! Kicking herself for not having asked him out _before_ he'd found someone else to love…

Asked him out before…

The realization was like getting punched that first time in the ZPD Academy ring.

Skye had spent so much time explaining to her that _Vixen's_ were _always_ the ones to ask the tod out. That tods would show their interest but they would _never_ be the ones to ask the vixen out. Because it was their _**STUPID DUMB**_ _Fox_ custom!

Gods, and she'd waved her tail at Nick earlier and told him that if he wanted to get his girl he needed to try harder because even a bunny like her wouldn't be interested. He'd done everything _but_ ask her out. Carrot Sticks he'd practically _thrown_ himself on her! And here she'd been so confused over his and his body's _obvious_ reaction to her while he seemed so steadfastly adamant that he loved his _Foxy Lady!_

She'd been so _Stupid_! A complete _**dumb**_ bunny!

She was still going to kick _her_ **DUMB** fox for not finding a better way to tell her!

He probably thought he'd been being _Sooooo_ _ **cute**_ with the little… clues… he'd… been…

 _Cute…_

Wait a second…

' _Ohhhhhh… right it's also a bunny 'hot' button!'…_

' _Cute! Cute! Cute! Judy. She. Is. So. CUTE. Like how cute could a cute-chuck be… Of course she's not a woodchuck! Judy. She. Is. A. Foxy. Lady… A Cuuuuutee Foxy Lady. The cutest one that ever was! Cutest Cute mammal ever! Cute CUTE CUTE cute Cute…'_

And she's found his tail-wagging, gleeful-gushing to be rather… cute…

He'd hustled her _good._

 _Cute, Nick, very 'Cute'._

She might have to give him a kiss for being so clever... but then she'd have to kill him. It was that or turn into a blushing bunny puddle.

Judy's tunnel vision on the screen, on that view of the sticker on her back that said in nice large letters ' _Foxy Lady_ ', snapped back as everything around her started moving all at once again. Her heart hammered away in her chest, the crowd moving, dancing, cheering; Gazelle singing the last refrain again with the elk, Nick blathering on about something, probably still trying to distract her from his body's far more straightforward and understandable reaction to his feelings.

~Can you feel the love tonight?~

~You needn't look too far~

~Stealing through the night's uncertainties~

~Love is where they are~

Judy looked up at Nick, her whole body flushing as a whole new world of emotions threatened to break free inside of her. A dazzling place she never knew! All her secret desires, all those thousands of little smiles he'd shown her, all those times he'd held her yet held himself back, all those fears and insecurities he'd shared with her, confided in her all the while not letting her know it was how _she_ might react that scared him. How he was afraid of losing _her_. Dumb Fox. He'd been a very _cute_ Dumb fox, in _**all**_ the varied meanings of that word, bunny and otherwise.

Judy reached up with both paws and cupped Nick's muzzle as he nattered away, which had the nice benefit of silencing him, then turned his head to face her.

He had such a perplexed look on his face from her unexpected action, such a _cute_ perplexed look that Judy couldn't help but smile. Then standing on her toes she put her lips to his and kissed him full on the mouth like she'd dreamed of doing for so long.

It wasn't that long of a kiss, it wasn't even, technically speaking, a very good kiss; his longer muzzle and her inexperience and the way he yipped in surprise as she kissed him made it a bit of an awkward kiss in all reality. But none of that mattered to Judy. To her it was the best kiss of her life. Nick might have been too startled to pay attention to how he reacted, but she wasn't. She felt how his paws instinctually held her, how his heart seemed to skip a beat and all the _other_ little tells of his body that she now clearly saw that screamed his feelings toward her.

It might not have been a _great_ kiss... But it was one hell of a satisfying kiss. It left Judy humming happily in her chest as she settled back on her feet with a very dazed looking fox staring at her.

"I, um, I… ah, What was… ah… that for _?_ …" Nick stammered, apparently unaware of how his arms were pressing her to him… or how _other_ parts of him were pressing back.

Judy grinned.

It was a _very_ satisfying reaction to her kiss too. A very cute reaction for a very cute fox who'd been a little, just a _little_ mind you, too _cute_.

"For _that_ ," Judy said point back in the direction of the screen by the stage. Nick's gaze followed, though he still seemed baffled.

"Bottom corner of the screen, you see?" Judy asked and Nick squinted for a second.

"Ya… that's, um, us…" Nick said sounding even more puzzled, probably wondering why she'd kiss him when they were being shown live on screen, even if just in the background.

"No," Judy said a grin forming. A very _predatory_ grin. A grin that no bunny should ever have the right to grin. "Take a closer look," Judy said and Nick squinted again. "See the sticker? I'm pretty sure that's you and your _Foxy Lady_."

Nick's whole body jerked and he yipped again snapping his head back to face her, only for his eyes to go a _wide_ as he now saw her grin.

"I- um, J-Judy- I c-c-can e-explain! I ah…" Nick stammered, his eyes getting a truly panicked expression.

"You don't just love me, you're _in_ love with me." Judy stated, not asked.

Nick gulped, then looked down before barely managing to whisper.

"Yes…"

"Good." Nick's head snapped back up, though his jaw took a second to follow and stop himself from gaping.

"You really are a _**dumb**_ fox, do you know that?!" Judy said her eyes flashing, and she grabbed his tie pulling it his head down closer to hers.

"Falling in love with a dumb bunny. How many times have I told you that I _love_ you too you _**dumb**_ fox?!" Judy half shouted, and as Nick gaped, attempting to come up with an answer she kissed him again, this time far more forcefully, pushing her muzzle to his as she pulled on the tie to keep him from being able to escape. She kissed him with everything she had to drive home that point.

 _That_ kiss lasted a little bit longer than the first...

Judy had to pull back before she wanted to though, because of her shortness of breath and her racing heart, and how all her feelings were spilling over inside of her. She needed to breath or she'd pass out.

"You… you... love me…" Nick said, still a bit uncertain, sounding shocked… though that might have been because of how she'd just kissed him.

"Nick…" Judy said closing her eyes for a second and taking a few breaths. "I started loving you back during the Nighthowler debacle. I started _falling_ in love with you not long after that."

"Even… even though I'm a _fox_?" Nick asked holding on to her as if worried she'd bolt now that she'd discovered that deep dark secret of his.

"Dumb fox. You're a _Dumb_ fox. And I'm the _Dumb_ bunny that fell in love with a dumb fox." Judy muttered then looked up at Nick as the shock and worry started finally fading to be replaced by a truly gloriously happy, tail wagging smile.

It made her heart ache, but ache in a not so bad kind of way. An ache she wouldn't mind living with for the rest of her life.

It was such a _cute_ smile, cute in all the right ways. Cute just like her _too_ cute fox.

"I have only one issue with you Nicholas Piberius Wilde," Judy said, forcing a stern expression back on over all her giddy happy feelings.

Nick's smile froze along with his tail as Gazelle finished and the elk at the piano took over while the song slowed to its finish.

~And, if, he falls… in love… tonight~

~It can… be… assumed…~

Judy rose up on her toes again as all the tiger dancers came chorusing back in,

 _ **~His carefree days with us are history~**_

But this time she didn't kiss him, she simple whispered into his ear.

"How many times did you call me _cute_?"

 _ **~In short,~**_ The elk and all the tigers finished together, **~our pal is** _ **Doomed!**_

* * *

Koslov, followed by what looked like the world's smallest abominable snowmammal, entered the lobby of the central log house of the small retreat complex on the mountainside, carefully brushing some snow off his shoulders.

The abominable snowmammal on the other hand, shook itself sending snow flying everywhere to reveal a rather grumpy fennec fox.

"I swear Koslov, someday… Somehow I _WILL_ get you back for that."

There was a grunt that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.

The fennec fox kicked the bears foot, not that it seemed to have any effect.

The large polar bear though, turned and glowered at the defiant little fox. Instead of pounding him into the ground like his expression said he might, the bear smirked and put his paws up to his cheeks, did a comical little reenactment of some damsel in distress falling and screaming out in a high pitched voice.

Finnick's tan fur went pale.

"How about we _never_ _ **EVER**_ speak of what happened out there again and I'll forgive my sworn terrible vengeance upon you?"

Koslov gave an amused snort but nodded his head, before turning back around.

"You're late!"

And then jumped.

"Now where have you two been?! You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago!"

Koslov, recovering, tried to speak.

"Um… Ma-mama, we were-"

"Don't you go trying to Ma-mama me!" Waved the not _quite_ as large as Koslov, Mrs. Koslov as she waved what looked like a feather duster at the bear's nose. "Things are moving, And I barely managed to finish dinner what with having to run out and get the spare cabin set up. * _Harrumph_ * And you two won't be getting a bite of it till you finish _your_ jobs. * _Harrumph_ * Should have expected you'd be late," the matronly older bear gave a repoving sniff. "Boys! You need a good girl to go settle you down! What were you running off doing this time anyway?" she said, crossing her arms over her apron and tapping her feather duster on her arm demandingly.

Koslov's mouth snapped shut and his face took on an obstinate, 'You'll have to torture me first to find out!' expression.

Finnick on the other hand, snickered before pointing at the bear and then making exaggerated lovey dovey kissing motions like he was making out with someone.

Koslov's white cheeks flared and his leg snapped out sending the small fennec fox fly across the room.

"Oh… now isn't _that_ Interesting!" the older bear chortled with a deep laugh, then walked over to pluck the fox out from in between the cushions of a couch where he'd gotten stuck.

"I'll tell you what. Since my little boy is more likely to bite off his tongue than tell his mother about who he's dating, why don't you tell me all you know about it after we're done here and I'll give you some of the special Honey pie I have baking."

Koslov's adamant expression suddenly broke.

"Ma- _ma_! That's _my_ pie!" he said in a deep, gravelly and almost wounded tone.

"Well you tell me about it and you'll get some too!" she replied seeming unconcered at the conflicted expression that came over the bear's face, then whispered down to Finnick who was still dangling from her paw.

"He's just like his father, bless that bear's soul. Had the heart of a teddy bear when it came to family under all that gruffy fur and a kinder sweeter mammal I'd never met. But Baloo help him, if he'd ever let anyone _else_ know that!"

She set the fox down on the couch and brushed some dirt off his back… and also almost knocked him right off the couch and onto the floor.

"Now since you two were late you missed some last minute changes. Mostly it looks like there's a new plan for getting them here so Kevin and Raymond won't be needed. But _you_ still have to do your part. You ready?"

"Why don't you just ask me if I could sell frozen water?" Finnick grinned toothily and pulled out his phone. "Am I ready. *huff* Seriously I was born ready. Hustle like this is easy as pie."

He tapped a number and prepared himself for his performance…

And… waited…

And waited so more.

And… finally,

"Hey, this is Nick Wilde."

"Nick, Where the hell is your ass right now?! I've got a problem-"

"But I'm apparently too busy to pick up my phone so leave a message after the beep! _**BEEP**_!"

Finnick stared at the phone for a second before hitting the end call button with a growl.

" _I-swear-I'm-going-to-break-his-phone-the-next-time-I-see-him-if-he-doesn't-change-that-voicemail-message!"_ he muttered angrily before redialing.

And… waited…

He was just about to give up when the phone finally clicked.

"Nick You'd better have a _DAMNED_ good reason for not picking-"

"Ummm… hello? Is this Finnick?" Came a voice that was distinctly _not_ Nick Wilde's.

"Wait… _Kevin_?!" Finnick said in shock finally recognizing the deep voice. "What the hell are you doing with Nick's phone? You and Raymond didn't grab him did you? That wasn't the plan!"

"No, we didn't grab him," the bear said and Finnick raised a paw to his face.

"Then _why_ do you have his phone?" he asked, trying to keep calm.

"Oh, he dropped it." Finnick breathed out about to ask why, because Nick would _never_ just _drop_ his phone, when unexpectedly the bear continued. "He was running from that bunny and it fell out of his pocket when he dived under some hippos. We thought we should pick it up."

"Wait… _What?!_ Running from… what the hell is going on?" Finnick asked confused, trying to make sense of what he'd just heard.

"Don't know. It looked like they were about to kiss, then the fox bolted with the bunny chasing him... I might run if someone was chasing me like that too…"

Finnick groaned and looked at his phone for a few seconds before replying.

"Would you go get that phone _back_ to Nick Wilde, and tell him that if he doesn't answer it a fox he knows might _regret it_!"

 _He_ _ **will**_ _regret it if he messes up a hustle I'm part of!_ Finnick growled to himself.

"Right, hold on just a minute." There was a click and the phone cut off as Finnick stared at it.

* * *

Bogo was lost to the world as Bess kissed him… and he kissed her back and she… and then an elephant near them let out an alarmed trumpet… and Bess dropped him.

"Opps! Sorry! Are you alright?" Bess asked pulling him back to his feet and brushing of his rear, "You didn't bruise your buns now did you?" she asked with worry.

"What? No, no Bess I'm fine, now what was that?" Bogo asked shaking his head and trying to focus.

Bess didn't help by giving his rear a squeeze.

"Oh that's good to hear." She smirked then looked over, pointing to a section of crowd that seemed to be in a bit of turmoil. "Not sure what's going on but it came from over there.

Bogo looked and groaned as he saw mammals moving and shifting in alarm like grass stems left swaying in the wake of a sprinting mammal through the savanna. Two rhinos by the elephant that had trumpets let out startled chuffs before looking down at their feet and then a pack of lions let out startled noises as a few jumped in surprise as the group scattered.

"What do you think is going on?" Bess asked, watching with him as the chaos moved through the crowd in a circle, now heading back toward the reforming herd hippos.

"I'll give you one guess…" Bogo said just as a familiar fox shape scrambled up the clothing of one hippo and then started leaping from head to head like they were stepping stones.

Then a bunny bounced up from the side, flipped and used a nearby giraffe like a mid air bounce board and sent herself hurtling toward the fox.

* * *

"Judy! You said You wouldn't tell yourself about that!" Nick shouted over his shoulder as he climbed frantically.

"I didn't. I have long ears! I overheard it!" Came the shout from the ball of fluffy fury somewhere behind him as he got to the surprised hippos shoulder and then leaped over to another hippos head, then leaped again.

 _Well if he was a dead fox anyway…_

"Then do you finally understand that I think you're _CUTE!_ "

" _NICKKKKK!_ " Even without Judy's radar ears he could hear the blush in her voice.

He grinned leaping again. Now that his cover was blown, calling her cute seemed to have even _more_ of an effect on her.

Now, if he could just keep out of reach of his blushing bunny, maybe he could tire her out…

 _Wait… who am I kidding? This is_ _ **Judy**_ _I'm thinking about._

It seemed… unlikely, that she'd tire first, he thought.

 _Welp, onto plan B._

"Hey Judy!" he called back, "You know I'm ears of tail in love with this absolutely **Cute** Foxy Lady _right_?"

 _Blush her into submission or go out with a bang._

"GET BACK HERE!" shouted his foxy lady. "YOUR TAIL IS _**MINE**_!"

Nick leapt again, turning his head to look back, only to go a little pale as he saw the blushing grey ball of fur bounce and flip off a giraffe, hurtling right at him.

 _Crap!_

He tried to twist mid jump, but Judy plowed right into his middle and they went tumbling, of course to bounce off a few mammals and go rolling away from the group like a ball sent flying in a game of Hungry Hungry hippos.

They rolled to a stop and Nick tried to scramble away, but a soft and yet _very_ strong paw clamped on his tail and dragged him back by it.

He let out a surprised yip and turned only for Judy to land on him pinning him to the ground.

"Mercy! _Mercy_!" Nick shouted in a desperate attempt to save himself, or his tail at least, from his rampaging bunny. In hindsight, he _maybe_ had called her cute just one to many times. "Mercy! I ask for Mercy from my cute bunny!"

 _Opps…_

Nick looked up at Judy sitting on his chest and could visibly watch her blush spread out from her cheeks and up her ears. He gave her his best smile.

"Um… that last bit just kind of slipped out."

 _And smile and pray!_

" _Your_ 'cute' bunny?!" Judy said indignantly, her chest heaving as the pink flush under her fur spread downward toward her breast.

"Ummm… from 'the' cu- ahh… _caring_ bunny I love then?" Nick tried with a lopsidedly nervous grin.

Judy's breath seemed to catch for a second as her cheeks got a bit redder and then her paw shot down and grabbed his now rather lose tie and pulled his head up and closer to hers.

"And _Why_ should I show you _mercy_?" Judy glared (blushing badly) down at him.

"Because… you love me too?" Nick smiling up at her hopefully, his tail even giving a few wags on its own.

Judy seemed to freeze and Nick had a worried moment were he thought maybe she'd just overloaded and her file had crashed. Then her eyes meet his. A lavender purple so unique he could drown looking into them. Eyes filled with life and kindness and, currently, with more than a little bit of exasperation and some, not quite in control wildness that seemed to burn like the source behind her heated blush.

"Fine…" Judy said and Nick relaxed a bit.

"If you kiss me," she added, and this time it was Nick's turn to freeze briefly.

"Come again?" Nick asked, just to make sure he'd heard her right. Judy seemed to vibrate on top of him as she gave a _very_ cute growl. Hearing that sound come from his bunny was both terrifying and arousing.

"If you want me to be merciful, then you'd better kiss me, Nick." she said again, looking right at him, her paw almost shaking as it held his tie. "And you'd better make it good!" she added poking him in his nose with her other paw.

Nick, slowly, reached up with his own paw, but instead of brushing hers away from his nose, took her paw in his.

Nick swallowed, his heart pounding hard enough that he thought Judy could probably feel it from her seat on his chest.

"You'll… You'll forgive me, if I kiss you?" he asked slowly, looking up at Judy and was shocked to see what he thought might be tears starting to form and shimmer in the corner of those beautiful eyes.

"No!" Judy said insistently shaking her head in an almost desperate manner, her legs squeezing his sides, "If you kiss me I might forgive you of _one_ of your cute remarks!"

This time Nick didn't grin. All the 'angry bunny' at his teasing had leaked out of Judy and she sat there now looking like a raw ball of emotions ready to pop. It reminded him of back when she'd found him under the bridge to apologized for the news conference. But he didn't hug her this time. She didn't want him to hug her this time.

He'd been worried for _so_ long that when she found out how he'd felt towards her he might lose her. That no matter how open and caring she might be, that the idea that a _fox_ loved her, and loved her not just in a friendly or even familial way, but _loved_ her, was _attracted_ to her, wanted to court her, wanted to become her _mate_ … even now he found it hard to believe she hadn't rejected him.

He was a fox and she was a bunny…

And yet…

She'd asked him to kiss her…

She'd _asked_.

She hadn't run. She hadn't been revolted or angry (okay, well, not angry for any reason that mattered, cute remarks aside). She hadn't flat out rejected him, shot down his hopes, she hadn't even, as he'd worried she might, tried to gently let him down and tell him she just wanted to be his friend.

In fact Judy seemed almost… eager, _relieved_ to find out how he secretly felt about her. If anything, there might have been a bit of anger mixed in there about not having found out _earlier_.

But now that she knew, she sure wasn't being subtle in her response.

Her paw in his was gripping it like she'd never let go. Shaking ever so slightly like she was afraid _he_ might reject _her_ now.

 _Dumb bunny_ … If she wanted him, then he was already hers.

Nick marveled at the whole situation for a moment.

It was almost _too_ good to be true. Even in his wildest dreams he'd never imagined that she'd be so open to a relationship with him, would chase _him_ down and demand it, demand a kiss. Even in those dreams he'd had to slowly work to bring her around to even the idea, to win her heart over all the taboos that stood between them.

 _Dumb fox_.

He'd underestimated her _again_.

Now though… now he had a chance to make it up to her. He didn't have to hold back how he felt. Well, not completely anymore at least. There was _no_ way she was ready for _**that**_ kind of commitment from him yet, and anyway, unlike Ralph, he wasn't really an exabitionist, not with his most closely guarded inner feelings.

Now though… now he had a chance to start showing Judy the full extent of those feelings…

And maybe one day…

Maybe one day Judy would be ready and ask him, and he could show her _all_ of his feelings.

Nick slowly shimmied himself partially out from under Judy and sat up, sliding her down so that she sat in his lap, her head even with his.

Then, slowly, ever so slowly… he raised his paw, touching his fingers to her cheek.

" _Nick_ …" Judy let out in a quiet anxious tone, her cheek turning into his paw, the soft fur on her muzzle sliding through his fingers.

" _Shhhh_ …" he hushed softly, intently, his brow furrowing just a tad as he looked at her, "Your muzzle's shorter than mine and I need to get this _right_."

Judy almost whined her cheek pressing harder into his paw.

Nick closed his eyes for just a second, taking in a breath, then tilted her head up a bit. Leaning forward he ever so carefully placed the tip of his nose lightly against the pink button of her own and looked her in the eyes. She stared back at him, her short quick breaths feathering against his muzzle as he let down all his guards and tried to let her see all the feelings he usually kept so carefully hidden away. Let her see in his eyes how much she meant to him, how much he cared for her, how much he _felt_ toward her. He whispered soft enough that only a bunny would have heard.

"You know I _love_ you, right?"

Her breath caught for a second and he saw her eyes start to water, so he gently pressed with his thumb and finger along her jaw and cheek, asking her to raise her muzzle just a little… then turned his head slightly letting his lips touch hers.

It was a tentative kiss at first. His lips just lightly brushing hers, barely a nip of a kiss, but she didn't pull away, didn't tense or become worried. Only had the slightest catch in her breathing, so he pressed forward, letting their lips touch again, letting the contact linger this time, _reveling_ in that contact.

But it wasn't quite right, not quite perfect and Nick pulled back, not _quite_ breaking the kiss as their muzzles skimmed over each other. He could feel his heart hammering like it might break at any second but he didn't care, only shifted his head a tad more to the side and let their hovering lip meet again just as Judy pressed her muzzle forward to his.

Their lips met, mingled, then seemed to slip together and Nick lost himself for a few moments in the wonder of that kiss. The teasing taste of her mouth against his, the way she responded to his lips on hers, how their muzzles, so different, seemed to settle into the perfect position against each other.

He'd dreamed of kissing Judy like this for _so_ long, but this kiss didn't compare to those dreams.

It surpassed them, blew them away.

He _poured_ his feelings into that kiss, not pressing or demanding, but asking, responding with all his heart. He didn't try to dominate her mouth, but kissed her with all the soft care he wanted to lavish on her, with all the love he felt for her.

It was a simple kiss. It was a perfect kiss. And when that kiss ended Nick thought he could die in the next instant and he'd be satisfied with life because he'd had the chance to kiss Judy just once like that.

Their breaths mingled for a second after that kiss as they sat there, Judy in his lap, their muzzles just an inch apart, breathing faster than normal. His tail was curled around them, pressing up against her puff of a tail and her paws had somehow found their way around his neck and head and were fisted in the fur at the nape of his neck.

They just sat there like that for a few seconds before he touched his nose to hers again and finally broke the silence.

"So, am I forgiven one of my cute remarks?"

Judy eyes focused on him, her chest still rising and fall more than normal.

"I'm… I'm not sure… I- I think… I think you need to kiss me again… just to be safe…"

Nick felt a small grin pull at the edge of his mouth.

"You're not trying to hustle me, are you?" he asked, not moving his nose away from hers and the tip of his tail flipped back and forth where it was snuggled around his bunny.

"And… and, what if I _am_?" she asked looking back at him, her fisted paws in his fur tightening ever so slightly.

Nick smiled; a smile that said he didn't care if she was hustling him and then still moving slowly, deliberately, so she had every opportunity to stop him, leaned forward and kissed her again.

It was just as amazing as the first kiss, better even, as inconceivable as that seemed. Still light and new and with so much promise as to how it might grow. And this time while he might have started the kiss, by the time it ended, Judy was the one leading.

"S-still not sure…" Judy mumbled after the kiss, breathing hard, "Kiss... me again."

He did.

He kissed her, nipping at her lip first before surrendering to the kiss, his arms pulling Judy closer even as she tugged at his neck.

They parted and Judy's breast heaving against his chest as she looked back at him.

"Again…"

He kissed her. But first he kissed her neck, causing her head to angle back with a small soft moan. Then he kissed slightly higher, then under her chin, kissing a light trail of kisses till her got to her mouth. She pushed forward as he kissed her back. She tilted her muzzle, and he groaned into her mouth.

She tasted sweet and perfect and like everything he ever wanted.

They broke apart and Nick stared into the face of the bunny he burst forth from fireworks around the stadium as Gazelle started singing.

 _~I messed up tonight~_

 _~I lost another fight~_

 _~Lost to myself but I'll just start again~_

Judy's paws tugged at the back of his neck.

"Again…"

He kissed her. She leaned back, letting him press forward. He stopped, feathered her lips with light soft kisses. She groaned then pulled herself up and retaliated, kissing fast. One little peck after another, too fast for him to kiss her back. Then he caught one of her kisses and their lips played tag, light gentle kisses each one just a tad slower till they melted together and stayed their merging, melding before finally breaking apart.

 _~I keep falling down~_

 _~I keep on hitting the ground~_

 _~I always get up now to see what's next.~_

"Again." Judy managed between breaths.

He kissed her, keeping his lips to hers in a long soft tender kiss. Kept that slow gentle affectionate kiss going until Judy practically melted against him, her body pressing against his front as her paws worked though the fur behind his neck as if desperate to hold him, prevent him from ever breaking that kiss.

But all things had to end eventually and so did that kiss.

 _~Birds don't just fly~_

 _~They fall down and get up~_

 _~Nobody learns without getting it wrong~_

" _Again_." Judy said insistently.

That kiss, like all things, might have had to end... but then ends just led to new beginnings, after all.

So Nick kissed her like she'd asked. Kissed her carefully, kissed her lovingly, kissed her in a way that asked if their time just being friends was done. Kissed her silently asking if now they might try being something… something a little _more_. Kissed her hopefully.

And she kissed him back.

 _~I won't give up, no I won't give in~_

 _~Till I reach the end~_

 _~And then I'll start again~_

Nick's smile ended up breaking that kiss. He couldn't help it. The enthusiasm with which she kissed him made him feel warm and happy to a terrifyingly giddy extent and the smile just broke out on its own, interrupting the kiss. Hell, even his tail was doing its own little happy dance though it seemed conflicted on whether it wanted to wag or wrap around Judy. In the end though it tried to do both with it circling her with the tip thumping on her leg.

 _~I'm not going to leave~_

 _~I wanna try everything~_

 _~I wanna try even though I could fail~_

Judy looked up at him, a smile of her own on her face.

" _Again_ …" she said and this time she nipped him first. Though it was like no nip he'd ever experienced from a vixen before. Maybe more of a nibble than a nip, her being a bunny and all and how she caught his lip with a tiny tug before they kissed. Nip or nibble, Nick decided as he kissed her (or she kissed him?), that first it really didn't matter what he called it, and second, that he really _really_ liked it and third that he really _really_ _**really**_ wanted her to do it again.

 _~I won't give up, no I won't give in~_

 _~Till I reach the end~_

 _~And then I'll start again~_

They pulled apart to breath and this time Nick beat Judy, putting his muzzle against hers and whispering between breaths.

"Again?"

Judy grinned and kissed the side of his muzzle, then let go of the back of his neck to put her paws on his cheeks and hold his muzzle still as she very deliberately kissed _him_.

Her kiss was as warm as the summer sun. As soft as her puff of a tail. As kind as the heart of the mammal that he'd lost his to. As insistent and sure of what it wanted as the ZPD's first bunny police officer was and more loving than he could have possibly imagined. Nick melted into that kiss, losing himself, hoping she'd keep kissing him like that forever, hoping this kiss wasn't just some dream; knowing that this kiss was too good to _possibly_ be just some dream.

If he hadn't already been in love with Judy, he would have surely fallen for her from that kiss alone. It didn't matter to him that she wasn't a vixen, wasn't a fox, wouldn't be a traditional 'respectable' mate for him, or he for her. And it apparently didn't matter to Judy either. That kiss told him more than words possibly could that she loved him.

She, Judy Hopps, loved _him_ … and he'd give her the world if he could.

And if he couldn't… well then, he'd just have to settle for loving her as much as a fox possible could.

 _~No I won't leave~_

 _~I wanna try everything~_

 _~I wanna try even though I could fail~_

Nick whined as the kiss ended, but Judy just looked up at him with a smile so happy that she was starting to tear up.

"Again?" she asked, and Nick practically dove at her, kissing her, covering her muzzle in kisses.

Judy giggled as he kissed her relentlessly, her paws traveling up to grab hold of him right behind his ears before scratching lightly.

Nick stiffened, then went limp with a whimper against Judy as the feeling of her tiny claws scratching through his fur sent waves of happy pleasure through him. And it was only when he was completely defenseless like that that his sly bunny attacked, kissing first his ears, then his brow, then his nose. He whimpered again and tried to turn to kiss her back but she just kissed his chin and then the side of his muzzle

 _~Oh oh oh oh oh- ~_

 _~Try everything!~_

 _~Oh oh oh oh oh-~_

 _~Try everything!~_

 _~Oh oh oh oh oh~_

 _~Try everything!~_

 _~Oh oh oh oh oh- ~_

It was only after he whimpered a third time, trying desperately to kiss her back that she relented and let him kiss her.

And _oh oh oh_ _oh oh_ what a wonderful kiss it was. It was like drinking pure ecstasy and joy and his chest starting to vibrate with a deep happy rumble as they kissed. It was his new goal in life, Nick decided during that kiss, that he'd kiss her more than any mammal had ever been kissed before or ever would be kissed again. So he kissed her as Judy's small paws latched onto his ears, using them to pull him further into that kiss while one of his paws cupped her longer ears to the back of her head cradling her in that kiss while his other moved down cupping her tail, supporting her as her legs squeezed around him while they kissed and kissed and _kissed_.

And when they could kiss no more they pulled back and Nick kissed her nose and then Judy kissed his.

"I wish we'd figured this out sooner," Nick said giddily before stealing a quick kiss.

"Me too," Judy replied and stole that kiss back. "But at least we do now."

Nick didn't think it was possible to be happier than he was at that moment in time.

 _~Look how far you've come~_

 _~You filled your heart with love~_

 _~Baby you've done enough take a deep breath~_

 _~Don't beat yourself up~_

 _~Don't need to run so fast~_

 _~Sometimes we come last but we did our best~_

Judy looked at him, happier than she thought she'd ever seen him while the tip of his tail wrapped back around her leg and started thumping again. Both asked at the same time.

" _Again_?"

They grinned at each other and then Judy pulled his head down into a kiss as he held her tight.

 _~I won't give up, no I won't give in~_

 _~Till I reach the end~_

 _~And then I'll start again~_

It was another soft slow sweet kiss. But that kiss lead to another… and another… and with each kiss they explored just a little more, kept kissing until-

" **Ehem.** "

The loud cough broke through to Nick's rather preoccupied mind, and made Judy jump in his lap with a loud _Meep!_

It was a _**very**_ disgruntled fox clutching his bunny protectively that turned to snap at whoever had interrupted them… and looked up… and then up some more before seeing the face of two all too familiar polar bears.

* * *

"Come on, we need to get closer and find out what's happening!" Bess insisted with the same determined excited desperation Bogo usually heard from Clawhauser saying he needed to check on the midmorning police office donut delivery. "They looked just about ready to break before and any female would recognize the tone that bunny was using! Your fox is in _soooooo_ much trouble!" Bess nearly squealed.

"Dear…" Bogo replied calmly-

 _Calm… stay calm… it's just Wilde and Hopps being… Wildehoppsish…_ Bogo thought to himself with effort, then groaned, _Calm Calm Calmmm_

"We can't get too close to them or they'll recognize us."

Bogo mentally nodded to himself. He'd never admit it to anyone or even himself but he was afraid of what they might find after seeing that bunny tackle Wilde mid jump. Bunnies weren't supposed to do things like that! It… it just wasn't normal! But then again when were those two _ever_ 'normal'?

 _Doomed…_ the last word of the previous song rang through Bogo's mind like a gong foretelling disaster.

 _Doomed…_

 _ **Doomed**_ …

"Right, you're right, they would recognize us if we got that close…" Bess said biting her lip in a way that momentarily distracted Bogo from his brooding thoughts. It was a very cute lip chewing pout he thought…

"Okay, lift me up then," Bess sai,d snapping Bogo out of his thoughts about Bess's lip.

"What?"

"Lift me up like you're trying to give me a better view of the stage!" Bess grinned and Bogo sighed knowing he'd just cave to her if he tried resisting.

He wrapped his arms around her hips under her but careful not to let his hoofs wander (Okay not wander _that_ much) and without apparent effort hoisted his giggling wife up.

There were a few more moments of giggling and a light swat from Bess's tail before she stopped, her hoofs going to her mouth, before she let out a muffled fangirl squeal that seemed to vibrate against his chest.

"Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Honey, you _have_ to see this!" Bess said, squirming so much that she almost slipped out of his grip.

He set her down as she continued to let out stifled delighted noises and pranced on her hoofs, still seeming to vibrate.

Bess then gave another startled giggly squeak and reached for her pocket, pulling out her phone, which Bogo now saw was vibrating.

"Yes? Yes?" She said hurriedly into her phone, grinning girlishly just like the first time he'd mustered up the courage to ask her out.

" _YES!_ I know I just saw! Here let me put you on speaker so Mason can hear too!"

She pulled the phone away from her ear, clicking a button as she, still prancing in place, practically threw herself on him in a hug and kissed his cheek.

"Chief! Chief! Did you see?! _*SQUEALLLLLLLLLLL* it worked! It actually_ _ **worked!**_ _I_ " Clawhauser's voice squealed through the phone tinnily.

Bogo, off balanced by the sudden attack of giddy Bess, snorted once, his tail giving a flick all on its own, and tried to focus on whatever Clawhauser was talking about.

"Clawhauser, _What_ worked?" He said with another snort of air to clear his mind.

Bogo thought it was a damned good thing Bess didn't work every day with _him_ like some mated pairs did. It was all well and good for some mammals like many wolves to work alongside their mates since they could operate effectively and keep their mind on the job while together, and being apart from their mates could end up being _more_ of a hindrance to their attention and performance than when they were together. But he simply didn't know how they did it. _He_ would simply _never_ be able to focus properly on his work if _Bess_ was around him all day long.

Bess certainly didn't help him keep his mind focused on talking to Clawhauser with the way she was grinning and gave him a surprise little peck on the lips.

"Chief! _They're_ _ **kissing**_ _!_ "

Bogo frowned as Bess grinned with a smile that lit up her face and kissed him cheek again.

"Um, what? Yes, Clawhauser I _know_ I'm kissing Bess!" Bogo said in a distracted grumbly manner at the over excitable cheetah calling just to tell him what he well knew what was going on.

"No Chief! I saw that on the big screens! I don't mean you! I mean THE _plan_ worked! Didn't you see the shot of them they just had on the screen? _They're_ kissing!"

Bess gave another excited giggle next to his cheek.

"Well of course they're kissing," Bogo huffed distractedly, "They just marked each other! Of course… wait- _you mean_ _ **Wilde**_ _and_ _ **Hopps**_ _are kissing?!_ " Bogo blurted out, his brain finally catching up to the what the cheetah had been saying as he snatched the phone out of Bess's hoof and stared at it.

"Hey Careful! Don't go breaking my phone too!" Bess said in a reproving voice, though her giggly smile lessened the effect of it somewhat.

Bogo's hoof clutching her phone stopped, as he very carefully made sure not to squeeze it like he wanted to squeeze the answer he wanted out of it.

"Yes! O M G! _*SQUEALLLLL*_ Chief you should see them, they look _Soooo_ CUTE!"

"Clawhauser!" Bogo said brow furrowing, he need to make sure what he was hearing was right, he needed confirmation. Then he could call off everything else, pat himself on the back for a mission well done and go back to letting Bess be as distracting as she wanted to be.

"When? Where? What Happened?! We just saw Wilde running from Hopps a minute ago! Are you _sure_ they're _kissing_ now?!" he asked speaking hurriedly into the phone, though he kept his voice low as if afraid he was going to jinx himself.

"Oh that's just _adoooOOOOOOoooorable!_ " Clawhauser squealed and Bess giggled next to him whispering into his ear.

"He's right honey! They're kissing, that or they're eating each others faces!" and then she squealed too.

Right, as cute as he found Bess's squeal, Bogo couldn't help think that there was just a bit too much squealing going on, even for a squeal inducing Gazelle concert. It was disorienting.

"CLAWHAUSER! Focus!" Bogo ground out rubbing at his temple while his cheeks heated a bit from Bess's commentary.

 _Don't care, Don't care, Doom't care, Doomed care…_

He groaned.

"Right. Don't worry Chief! We got one of the camera crews on them so you can watch the _whole_ reply later!" Bess squealed at that and he just groaned _more_. "Oh My Goodness, they look so _happy_! I mean Chief, I couldn't believe it! They were sort of just dancing to gazelle's duo with Elkton John and wasn't _that_ amazing chief? I mean I didn't think that song could get any better, but, then again they never had the angel with horns sing it before!"

*Groan* _Don't care, I'm happy because of Gazelle singing a special duo, Don't care, Don't care…_

"And then something happened and Judy grabbed Nick and kissed him out of the blue! Then he _bolted_!"

"Wait…" Bogo stopped his mental mantra, frowning at the phone, "Wilde ran _because_ she kissed him?"

"Well… she whispered something to him right after when he looked like a deer caught in a spotlight… but ya, then Nick bolted and Judy tackled him and then _he_ kissed **her**!"

"Hold on…" Bogo said trying to mentally reconstruct what had happened, "Don't you mean she tackled the fox and then kissed _him_?" he asked because the scenario seemed to simply not make sense to him. Why would Wilde _run_ **then** kiss her?!

"Nope! * _SQUEEEAL_ *" Bogo was going to have to do something about the squealing before he went deaf, "She tackled him and said something and then _Nick_ kissed Judy! After that it was game over because they just started kissing each other like crazy!"

 _Makes no sense… makes no sense…doomed._

Bogo groaned looking up to the sky for help as he rubbed his temple only to see his personal idol singing her most popular piece.

 _~I won't give up, no I won't give in~_

 _~Till I reach the end~_

Right. It might not make sense, Hell most of what those two did _never_ seemed to make sense but it seemed to always work out. And he'd accomplished his goal. Made it to the end of his mission and now he could relax and simply enjoy the remainder of the night with Bess.

Thank goodness he had his idol to guide him whenever he was in doubt.

"Whatever, I don't care," Bogo said coming to his decision. "My job is done. Clawhauser call off Plan J. we got what we wanted so now let's just enjoy the rest of the concert before we all head home."

There was a pause.

"Ummmm chief…"

 _Doooooooooooooooomed…._

Bogo groaned. What could it possibly be now?

"It… ah… might be a little, just a little mind you… um… too late for that…"

Bogo dropped his head onto Bess's shoulder and groaned a final time.

 _~I'll keep on making those new mistakes~_

 _~I'll keep on making them every day~_

* * *

For all the world had changed, for all that mammals had evolved and grown and become civilized, Nadine couldn't help but think somewhere deep in the back of her mind while running her muzzle through Ralph's fur, that it still seemed like some of the most important moments in mammals lives were ruled more by their instincts than by rational thought.

In that moment of time during the trials at the police academy when she'd had to dig deep and act on pure unthinking resolve to make it through…

During a shootout on a raid when a split seconds reaction had her covering Ralph so her heavier body armor would take a round that could have killed him…

Now, as she marked her mate, claiming him as the one she'd spend the rest of her life with…

Instinct.

There was obviously no other reason for what she was currently doing.

Sure, they might have talked, _briefly_ , but none of that mattered right now. None of that had any bearing on her actions as she marked Ralph.

She was operation on pure instinct. On overwhelming need and emotion and love and longing and desire. On that part of her, deep down that growled in satisfaction as she claimed him as hers, and purred when she thought about _his_ mark telling all others she was taken.

There was absolutely no thought anywhere else in that mess of feelings despite whatever her civilized self might say.

Nadine knew as she marked her wolf, that if he'd found out earlier about his mark, confronted her earlier about it, that they would have ended up right here anyway. She could hide from that all she wanted but when it came down to the moment of truth, her rational mind and all its reasons why this might not be the smartest move fell to the wayside and instinct took over.

Not that her rational thinking self seemed to have any objection at the moment either, that traitorous supposedly sane part of her!

Nadine had started with his head, rubbing along his muzzle, pressing her cheek and chin deep into his fur, driving her scent as far into him as she could. Then she marked his other side making sure to run right over his nose. Ralph had returned _that_ little favor after he'd thoroughly marked her neck and it was like an explosion of wolf, _her_ wolf, that lit up her senses like a fireworks explosion.

The scent of wolf crashed down on her like a descending tsunami. Her nose was filled with his smell, drowning in wolf, _her_ wolf, as it seared its way through her olfactory sense and right into her mind.

Ralph… all she could smell in that moment was _Ralph_ … pure undiluted Ralph… her Ralph… her _wolf_ … Her whole world seemed to be filled with only… Ralph.

It rolled through her, starting from where he'd marked her nose and burning its way to the end of every limb in a liquid fire that made her mewl against him and redouble her efforts to drive her scent forever into him, down to the very fabric of his being.

It was a wonder she hadn't blinded him with her fangs the way she'd frantically rubbed her jaw along his face working up to his ears, though after she was through rubbing the inside and outside of them with her chin he'd probably end up hearing her scent for a week. That was if he could hear anything after the way her traitorous body had started purring.

There was some part of her that was indignant at the way she responded to his claim, at just how easily she was rolling over for this wolf. It screamed that she was an independent tiger, that _no_ _one_ owned her! And it was utterly completely useless because she wanted to be his more than she wanted to be her own…

Finished with his head, Nadine move down to his neck, working each side down to his shoulder, stretching the fabric of his shirt as she tried to reach every part of him she could without reaching up and using her claws to rip the impeding fabric away from her wolf… her mate…

If she was indignant over his claim on her, at least she could sooth that part of herself with the knowledge that she'd given that away in exchange for _him_. Ralph was _hers_ now. Completely absolutely _hers_.

 _ ***Puuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

That knowledge utterly _crushed_ any and all opposition.

Nadine's paw had moved up gripping his shirt collar covering his shoulder as her head worked but she had just enough control left in her to prevent herself from opening her claws all the way and ripping his clothing off. That, she promised herself, would come shortly, come soon. Come after they were away somewhere, just with him and her and then she'd mark the rest of him hidden being that irritating fabric. She would _cover_ him in her scent, from head to toe and the tip of his tail. She'd force her scent so deep into him that it would be impossible for him to ever completely lose it. And then she'd do it again, and again; do it every day in case it ever fade even the slightest bit.

 _He was hers…_

 _Her mate…_

 _The future father to her cubs…_

 _Her wolf…_

 _Her partner for life…_

Finished with his neck and shoulders, Nadine took a moment to bask in the purely primal pleasure of the moment as Ralph worked on the top of her head and her round ears, paying special attention to the white splotches on the back. She could feel his chest rumbling with a possessive growl as he did so and it made her purr deepen in her chest, but that wasn't enough. She pressed up against him, running her head up under his chin, encouraging him, reveling in the contact as she arched her head under his muzzle before turning and doing it again, rubbing as much of herself as she could against him while still clothed.

 _She was his mate… a wolf's mate…_

 _Ralph's tigress…_

 _The future mother of his pups… (maybe… someday…)_

 _His partner…_

 _His for life…_

She knew that as much as she knew the sun would rise in the morning and set at night. She knew it in her mind and in her heart and because she'd chosen it and because her _instincts_ told her so.

Ha! She was a tiger and her instincts were telling her this _wolf_ was her mate?!

She was pretty sure her felines instincts weren't supposed to be in favor of this! If anything, it should be driving her away from him, making her feel conflicted for her feelings toward him, not egging her on enthusiastically!

Her instincts must be broken.

Her wolf had broken them, stupid bad wolf…

She'd nip him for that, she decided… after she was done rubbing and purring against him…

Stupid lovable wolf…

 _ ***Puuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

Then again, maybe… maybe mammal's instincts had changed from their savage root, been domesticated over the ages by civilization, changed and adapted to fit this strange new wonderful world.

Nadine closed her eyes for a second, savoring the feel of Ralph nuzzling her head as she arched up under his muzzle again.

She could get used to this new world with broken instincts or whatever it was.

It was certainly better than the dark ages where it was every mammal for themselves, predator and prey and heartless competition for survival. She'd was pretty sure Judy would agree with her too (though she needed to get off her tail and do something about that fox mooning over her.). This though… this…

 _ ***Puuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

...was definitely better. Of that Nadine was certain, because in that old world she probably wouldn't have ended up with Ralph, and there was no way in _any_ world that she could possibly have a better mate; be happier than she was with any other mate.

It was a rash stupid ill thought out choice.

It was a choice that made her happy.

Maybe part of it was her heat right now, maybe part of it was all her repressed desires she'd had for him, maybe all that made it seem this impossibly wonderful. Nadine couldn't deny that there weren't still some niggling worries that they were moving too fast, that they shouldn't be deciding so quick… but those worries got quashed by the upwelling emotion and love she had for Ralph that was finally running rampant and free.

Nadine knew… _knew_ , that this was the right choice. That _he_ was the right choice. She didn't know _how_ she knew it, only that she did.

Maybe it was because he loved her?

And because she… _(Damnit, she could, would say it now, without turning into a mess! Well, think it at least)_

She _loved_ him.

Maybe that was why.

Regardless of all the other factors, that… love, was an underlying certainty, and hasty or not they'd already jumped, and jumped together. And she would tell him how she felt without crying all over him! Next time…

She might need some practice…

But that was okay, she'd get plenty of time to practice.

There was no going back now.

She didn't _want_ to go back.

She wasn't one to look back anyway…

It was too late. She'd made her choice and that choice was Ralph. And since she'd made that choice she'd pursue it without reservation. She'd tell him she loved him and if she was going to be a wolf's mate then he'd be the happiest damn wolf there was...

She was already sure he was going to make her the happiest tiger that ever was or would be too.

 _ ***Puuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrr***_

The need, the drive was overwhelming, and Nadine found that she couldn't simply stand there letting Ralph nuzzle and mark her without responding, and even arching, rubbing her body against him wasn't enough.

She marked his muzzle again and then unsatisfied with her inability to make her mark there any stronger than it already was reached down and grabbed his paws.

She brought them up and rubbed them under her chin and along her cheek.

First the back of his paw and forearm, then the pad of his paw and in between each digit and claw.

She chuffed with satisfaction as she finished.

He wouldn't be able to so much as _touch_ another mammal without her scent traveling along with his.

Let that stand as a warning to any other female that might have ideas about taking her wolf.

But Ralph didn't let go of her paws as she finished her task. No, he held on and then slowly brought her paws to his cheek before taking exquisite care to mark every part of them with a determined thoroughness. He couldn't have marked her more if he'd dunked her paws in a vat of his scent.

Nadine's purr caught in her chest as she watched him, understanding that this is how he planned to treat her, care for her, that as her mate he was going to try smothering her with love and tender kindness until she melted from the inside out basking in his loving ministrations.

It was an evil devious plan…

And it was working.

Working all too well already…

She couldn't let that stand.

Nadine let him finish but as soon as he had, she retaliated. Moving forward, she let out the purr that had been building in her chest in full force as she rubbed up against him; running her head along his shirt covered chest, then through his ruff up along his neck under his chin before nipping his ear. Telling him quite clearly that she wouldn't simply stand there and let him pamper her (well not always…) and that if he tried he'd better expect her to counter in kind… well… maybe a bit more in her own way. She had more of a mind for playful little games than simple pampering.

She was a feline after all, so he'd better get used to the idea of her pouncing on him.

Ralph, that sneaky wolf though made his position on that matter clear when, in a move that startled and pleased her on a deep visceral level, he surprised her by giving her chin a lick.

Her purr stopped, then redouble as she stared back at him with a heated gaze.

Ralph grinned goofily and wagged his tail.

Nadine chuffed then nearly pounced on his tail, snatching it with one paw as she pressed against him leaning over to the side as she brought his trapped wiggling fluffy appendage up so that she could mark that too, and damned if anyone saw her do it! That was _her_ tail on _her_ wolf and he'd just better get used to it!

Nadine didn't realize she'd raise her own tail snapping it back and forth in her excitement as she leaned to his side marking that fluffy gray wolf's tail until that devilish wolf nipped _her_ tail then marked it as well!

The tender bite sent little electric shocks of pure heat right up her tail to explode inside of her belly and she had to stop herself from roaring and turning to pouncing on her mate and drag him to the ground right there and then.

" _Ralph…_ Not _here_!" Nadine nearly begged looking up at him as she held onto his shoulders for support, her legs suddenly feeling a bit wobbly under her effort to restrain herself.

Ralph though, Rajah curse him, only looking very pleased with himself, then kissed her nose which nearly sent her over the edge. He apparently saw her reaction to that kiss or sensed the impending danger because his eyes widened just a tad and he took a step back with a sheepish apologetic grin.

The space was _just_ enough and just in time to prevent her from doing something she'd seriously regret doing ( _in public…_ ) to her wolf, though her arms on holding onto him refused to let him get any further away from her than the short step had taken him.

They simply stared at each other for a few moments after their frenzied marking, Ralph looking… well like an utter happy _Ralph_ and her panting more than a little and trying to recover some of her composure.

She took in a few calming breaths then looked up at her new mate.

And… _**blushed**_.

 _Oh gods! And what the hell am I supposed to say to Ralph now after_ _ **that**_ _?!_

 _Hey Ralph, It's been a one hell of a crazy day, huh? You want to go find a pub and grab a drink (or two… or three…)?_

 _Sooo… now that we're mates and stuck together for life… which side of the stadium are we going to be sitting on for the Prowler verse Pack game? The canine side or the feline side?_

 _Can we please_ _ **please**_ _**Please**_ _go rut now?_

 _There isn't paperwork involved in this joining your pack is there? Please tell me there's no forms or anything because I hate paperwork!_

"I love you."

Ralph's words broke through her thoughts and Nadine groaned leaning her head against his chest.

 _Damnit! Most of the time Ralph can ramble on, but then he goes and pulls something perfect out of thin air like that! Why is he so consistently unexpectedly perfect?! That's not fair!_

"I love you too." She muttered back, not able to look at him directly as her blush worsened. Her paws twitched, clutched at him, her claws extending a bit before she asked almost pleadingly. "How much longer until we can leave and go home?"

 _ **Thu-Thump**_

Nadine's heart thumped hard, nearly jumping out of her chest as she said that.

There was an implied 'together' in that sentence. An unstated 'go home _together'_. There was no more _her_ going home, or him dropping her off. It was now a 'them' and 'us' and 'we' and home now had an inherent quality of _theirs_. Without Ralph there, her apartment would no longer seem like 'home'. Home was now where ever _they_ were.

Nadine was unprepared for how much that little shift in how she spoke would affect her. It made her heart ache with sort of need to be with her mate that was terrifying in its depth for something so new.

Ralph wrapped his arms around her waist scooting closer and Nadine groaned, feeling warm all over from the presence of her mate, like he'd wrapped her up in a blanket even though she was the larger of the two of them.

"As soon as the concerts over," Ralph murmured softly as she, unable to stop herself, leaned down nuzzling against his neck, "Wilde and Hopps should be done with their mission by then and we can go home."

 _ **Thu-Thump**_

Nadine stopped nuzzling for a second as the way Ralph said home, as it made her heart ache even more than before. Nadine closed her eyes again and leaned into her mate.

 _Her mate…_

That was going to take some getting used to.

She sighed, whether in contentment or resignation, she wasn't sure.

"I can't believe what's happened today…" Nadine mumbled. "And on top of it all, it seems like their super secret mission today might have been a bust. I just hope we didn't end up messing it up for them." Nadine cringed a bit, thinking of the little fiasco in food court. The Chief was _not_ going to be happy if they had messed up their mission, good intentions or not.

Ralph seemed to sense her thoughts because he hugged her tight.

"Given their history, it would take more than us to keep trouble away from them," Ralph said reassuringly, "We aren't even filled in on the details, so they might have actually already done what they came her to do." Ralph turned his head and gave her a small kiss which made her tail snap happily. "Anyway all _we_ need to do is keep an eye on them and make sure…" Ralph trailed off, his face going a bit pale as he looked over her shoulder.

Nadine frowned, feeling the sudden spike of tension that stiffened Ralph and turned to see what he was looking at.

Then she stiffened too, alarm and adrenaline clearing her mind of all thoughts of being newly mated and how quickly she could get her mate into bed with her.

"Crap! Those are the two bears we saw watching them in the coffee shop this morning!" Nadine whispered as if afraid the two bears standing over Judy and Nick might over hear them in the loud concert. And why was Judy sitting in Nick's lap like that anyway? "How the hell did we miss them approaching?!"

Oh right, because she'd been too absorbed with talking to Ralph, and crying on Ralph, and almost jumping Ralph, and final admitting that she loved Ralph, oh and marking her claim on Ralph too. Couldn't forget that little development now could she.

She was going to have to get a handle on her partner now also being her mate real damned quick or the Chief was going to split them up faster than Clawhauser eating a donut. Maybe he'd give them a break since she'd only had about um… well about a minute's practice being mated. That and technically they _weren't_ on duty right now either. She was going to have to make sure she didn't let that world shaking life altering change in her life interfere with their team work or distract her, because she was _not_ losing Ralph as her partner!

"Okay, let's not be hasty. Remember we're here just in case things go sideways." Ralph whispered back, all hints of the goofy wolf gone, replaced by the serious on the job ZPD police officer that had gotten him assigned to so many difficult cases.

"Right, let's not make it obvious we're watching them," Nadine said, turning her head back around and leaning down to nuzzle Ralph's neck again though it lacked the previous sensual draw it had a moment before. "We're just two innocent mammals in love, necking at a valentine's day concert, while you still got eyes on them?"

Ralph gave a half amused chuckle and started laying a line of kisses along the stripes of her fur at the crook of her neck and shoulder.

"Yep, I got eyes on them. Those are definitely the polar bears from this morning. Can't hear what their saying but this looks like mob all over." He added a small nip in with the kisses and even as focused on the situation as Nadine was, she could feel her body respond with a wet heat that made her flush.

"Do you have any idea what their doing? If they try grabbing them…" Nadine shook her head worriedly just a bit. "That wouldn't be good in here, to many bystanders might get hurt and the dark and noise would work toward their advantage."

Ralph kissed his way up to her ear then nuzzled that for a moment, using that as cover to whisper back to her.

"I'm not sure. This has more of a look of a message, maybe a warning, than a snatch. If they try and 'invite' them to a meeting with a mob boss though…" Nadine could feel Ralph tense, "Things could get ugly fast. Nick and Judy aren't in exactly the best spot to evade or fight back. And what the hell are they doing sitting on the floor like that too? This is a dance not a kumbaya pow-wow."

That _was_ a good question Nadine thought, a small smirk forming on her muzzle.

"Maybe they were just trying to keep their cover and 'pretending' to be two love sick idiots like we are." Nadine responded and nuzzled Ralph's cheek.

"Right…" Ralph said a touch of amused sarcasm touching his voice. "That would be _mighty_ _hard_ for those two to do. And didn't they already pull that 'fake' in love act with the wedding house debacle?"

"Hey it worked once for them with a mob case, no reason it shouldn't work again." Nadine responded, hiding her grin in Ralph's shoulder.

 _And maybe just maybe it'll stick this time if they were pulling that act again_ , Nadine thought to herself and even crossed her fingers behind Ralph. Other cops might start ripping out their fur if the betting pool on those two went bust again.

But she could worry about the precincts betting pool another time, right now they had a job to do.

"What else can you make out from here?" Nadine asked with a kiss to Ralph's ear thinking that pulling off a 'fake' lovers act as cover was way _way_ to easy. Infact, she'd need to be careful not to take it too far.

"Not much. It looks serious though, Nick's ears are pinned _all_ the way back, wait! Uh-oh…" Ralph stopped nuzzling her for a second, "One of the bears just pulled out a phone, Nick's talking on it… whoa his tail just puffed out! Nadine-"

Ralph didn't need to say more. If Wilde's was shocked like that it didn't bode well. They needed to be ready to move.

"Move on your call. You go long, I go close?" Nadine asked in a quiet tense whisper.

Ralph nodded, then pulled his head away from her ear and kissed her. He kept his eyes just barely open and looking just past her, but his kiss was still more than enjoyable and it took all Nadine's discipline to keep her mind on what they were doing and not on kissing her mate.

Their muzzles locked in a deep kiss for anyone else to see and she pulled him closer using the motion to sneak a paw under his shirt and snag his pair of cuffs while Ralph's paws worked down along her back to her butt. One paw not so subtly copping a feel as it caressed the curve of her rear while the other slid past the base of her tail dipping inside her jeans, the feel of his claws running through her fur enough to make her gasp into the kiss and jerk her hips involuntarily against his.

Ralph grinned into the kiss, then whispered.

"Got your gun."

* * *

END OF

CHAPTER 15 - It's A Trap!

PART 1:

'Springing the Trap!'

…

Operations Clock: 7.5 hours

...

* * *

*snicker* Seriously you didn't see that coming?

Well, to be honest neither did I .…

but it turns out that there's a limit to chapter sizes that can be posted in Ao3 and the complete chapter kind of um… would break it…(Don't think i could break Ao3? Well... I managed to crash my google docs while transferring big edited sections of this: Grinch 1, Google 0!) so ya… This time it's legitimately not my fault! Hooray! And I now have a convenient excuse to give you all another countdown to groan and moan over! Even Bigger Hooray! Reset the countdown timer! Reset the timer!

Wait, you say?

They already kissed, you say?

 _ **PFFFFFTTTTTtttt!**_

Please, that's just the tip of the iceberg *snicker*

24:00.00

Beep

23:59.59

Beep

...

 **Secret Squirrel Division Report:**

 **Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps** \- The squirrels are now terrified of this beta reading editing typo demolishing monster. They had no idea what they awoke when the snuck into his house and slipped in bits of the chapter into his workload to review! He's crazy (awesome) and insatiable (Seriously?! this chapter took me _months_ to write and I Reviewed it and edited it and then he came in and started throwing out typos left and right and dear god what hath you wrought!? *squirrels now searching desperately to find new fluff filled works to appease Cimar* Also seriously? You slipped in an aladdin quote? *snicker* kodos

 **Irual** \- squirrels report additional typos annihilated by irual, as well as tactful suggestions and questions during beta reading. Note: Secret Squirrel Division mammals may need counseling to deal with witnessing the the downfall and future extinction of typos, brought on by beta readers/editors.

 **Fox in the Hen House** \- The Squirrels apparently didn't even both to sneak in to his house and steal stuff, they just knocked on his door and asked for advice when they needed it.

 **MinscLovesBoo** \- *special note added by the Squirrel Inspector General* It has come to our attention that a certain renown author *Cough* _Boo_ *cough* may have subverted some of our secret squirrel division. He is apparently secretly feeding them and challenging them to slip in awesome little hilarious quotes of his devising into this story!

 **eng050599** \- Squirrels successfully infiltrated Eng's home pretending to be another actual real life scientist (apparently a lab coat and mustache-glasses disguises _do_ work) and got him to review certain alterations to underpinning scientific aspects of evolution to ensure that the skewed evolution track presented in this world is, _plausibly (take with a BIG grain of salt)_ , workable with known science. Or at least not complete junk. Meh. it works, so says the real scientist. Also they stole some of his original story ideas (*cough* Honeywells *cough*) for use here.

…

 _We shall defend our Fluffdom, whatever the cost may be! We shall see them kiss on the beaches, we shall see them snog on savannah's grounds, we shall see them Boop noses in the fields and in the streets; They shall kiss from Zootopia's Skyscrapers to Tundra's snowy Peaks! We shall never surrender The Fluff!_

 _-Quote by his grinchness Fluftston Churchill to the House of Common Fanfic Writers_


End file.
